A Faraway Land Called Hyrule
by JuneiTheScerzo
Summary: In order to retrieve one of the Dragon Balls from an alternate dimension, Dende opens up a portal for the Z Warriors into Hyrule. That same portal also opens up an escape route from Hell for some of Earth's most wanted tyrants. Additionally, Prince Vegeta gets an unexpected lead on the assassins who murdered his mother. Rated T for gore, mild language, etc. My first story, enjoy!
1. To Dream of the Sea

In order to retrieve one of the Dragon Balls from a mysterious alternate dimension, Dende and Popo open a portal for the Z Warriors into the land of Hyrule. Unfortunately, that portal also opens up an escape route from Hell for some of Earth's most wanted tyrants. As events quickly occur, one disaster after another, Prince Vegeta also gets an unexpected lead on the assassins who murdered his mother, and vows to exact revenge.

Rated T for gore, mild language, implications, lots of OOCness and other things for people not below twelve. Takes place directly after Cell Games Saga and two years after Twilight Princess. I apologize for screwing with the Hylian story line and timeline, but I wanted to add as many places and races as possible. Also, the Fourth Wall is out for lunch for the entirety of this fanfiction.

Hate me if you want, love me if you can, and enjoy!

**DISCLAIMER: I, JTS, do not own Dragon Ball Z or the Legend of Zelda. However, I did come up with a few OC's and spells myself, which I'll point out at the end of each chapter so there's no confusion.**

**WARNING: Every section following this sentence contains SPOILERSSSSSSS for both series! Read at your own risk!**

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To Dream of the Sea…

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_Somewhere in Hyrule Castle Town_

_Eighteen months after the defeats of Zant and Ganondorf_

_Six months after the Great Fairy War_

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**Everyone** has a demon.

Unless they are one.

The moon was dark overhead, barely more than a slim grinning crescent fading into nothingness behind the waning clouds. But besides the small strand of bad weather, the sky was relatively clear. Stars twinkled like little diamond crystals in a rock, shimmering and casting a bright light on the shoreline of Lake Hylia.

Our demon of choice, however, was not admiring the lake's wonders. No, he had a special place, a nondescript apartment in a shadowed alley of Hyrule Castle Town. To some, his place would look abandoned, just a rundown shack with an accidentally slanted roof and a chilling lack of lights. But to him, it was a base of operations, a way to see how quickly his plan was progressing. The only symbol that made the place stand out even remotely was an unkempt sign on the door, reading only three big red letters in messy Hylian.

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_H_

_M_

_S_

_..._

Below that, another sign.

_..._

_Customers_

_Welcome_

_..._

The word _all_ had been scribbled in red ink just before the word _customers._

How was the plan going? Good.

Was it time to advance it? …Maybe.

He shivered slightly as he looked up at the skylight that had been "installed" in the ceiling. It was more like he had used an old army spatha of his to tear a hole in the shoddy patchwork above his head, adding a rustic feel to the shadows that often cast themselves upon him. Unfortunately, his lack of physical strength and agility had taken its toll on this man of mid-forties, and he had been lying on the ground for an hour before the chill had roused him to fetch a jacket. Being at least partially human, he was still affected by the cold, which sent spiked chills through him at the most unexpected of moments. No starlight shone in his dwelling, no moon sinking its bright fangy teeth into his eyes. After immigrating to Hyrule from the southern country of Termina, he had come to hate the moon, that huge devilish sphere that hung in the sky. It was always laughing at him, mocking him, just out of his reach. At least it was no longer smiling. Anything but the moon smiling for the HMS.

There were many urban legends about him. Some people said that he reeked of evil, some said that his actions simply prolonged peace in the oddest of ways; to be honest, it could have been either and he wouldn't have cared. The time for peace wasn't going to last much longer anyway.

"Tatl," he said quietly but sharply, pulling his hood over his head further as he sat in a cross-legged position on a rug just below the skylight. Nobody would recognize him like this. He reached out with one hand for the antiquated crystal ball on the floor beside him, trailing a finger on the dusty orb. "I have a question for you, let's see if you can answer it."

The little yellow fairy known as Tatl flew up to him, the bright light emanating from her aura blinding him. "Y…yes, sir?"

"It's getting rather late, isn't it? Usually I've met with people by this time of day."

"I understand, sir, and I'm sorry—"

"How many customers have you found?"

She chimed nervously and the glow around her dimmed. Tatl didn't want to answer.

"Tatl," he replied coldly, not looking away from the orb as he stopped trailing his finger through the dust. "I am still waiting for your answer."

"I…uh…found one. For you. The Zora council representative wanted to meet with you."

That earned a smile from him. He reached up towards her, and she shied away slowly, but his outstretched hand stopped and gave her a thumbs-up. "A Hylian Councilman? The Zora representative, at that!? What an unexpected surprise! My, my, good work, Tatl. Excellent, in fact! This was just what I needed. When did they say they were coming?"

Tatl breathed a sigh of relief, happy that she hadn't been punished. "A few minutes."

"Good." He laughed softly. "Ah, when plans come to fruition! You may go, Tatl. I don't think I'll need to keep my business open any longer, not after this. You take Skull Kid and Tael to the woods bordering Termina and wait for me there."

The little pixie was brimming with pride, he could see it, but she did her best to hide it and chimed obediently. "Of course." She zoomed off through a hole in the door, the room darkening once more.

Not even a moment after, there was a single knock on the door.

He waited a moment, to build suspense.

The person at the door must have been looking around wildly, checking to make sure that they were alone. She shouldn't have needed to—privacy was easy to find at this time in this part of Hyrule.

"…Hello?"

He smiled once more and moved the crystal ball into the shadows, standing and pulling his cloak tighter around his body. "Ah, yes, you may enter."

The door creaked open quietly, and a feminine figure, also hooded, stepped through the door. The dark cloak she wore made her almost invisible in the eerie light cast by the stars, yet he could just barely see a golden crown on her head. "You are the one the young fairy told me about, yes?" she asked cautiously.

He nodded. "As a matter of fact, yes. Here to serve, madam."

She pulled back her hood, revealing a Zora female, with pale bluish skin and deep cerulean eyes that reflected the stars above. She looked eerily beautiful for a fish-woman. "My name is Laruto," she said. "I was hoping you could help me—"

"Prove that you're really Laruto."

"What? You doubt me?"

"A face isn't enough to prove it. There is always a mask somewhere among my customers, and surprisingly enough I haven't seen one in a while. So doubt is necessary in my line of work," he replied frostily.

"…Very well." She reached up for the clasp at her neck and unfastened it, revealing a long black robe and a white scarf around her neck as the cloak fell to the ground. Her entire body was see-through, like that of a spirit. She reached out a shaky webbed hand, as if to tap him on the shoulder, but her body itself began to dissipate before it was even touching him. She gasped sadly and drew back. "Is this enough to convince you that I'm not a murderer or a Hylian guard? I couldn't touch you even if I tried."

"Hmm," he said, putting a hand to his chin and purposely ignoring her little transparency problem. "You're definitely not a Hylian guard, and I don't think murderer is the most appropriate word. Alright, you've convinced me, Laruto. Although you look different than the councilmen say."

She gestured to herself with a clear hand. "If I wore my usual attire, someone would be bound to notice me."

"Wouldn't the transparency tip them off as well?" he added.

"True." Laruto stepped forwards towards him. "But that would be of little consequence. It's true that if they caught me talking to a man like you, I would be thrown in a prison cell for life; but I would survive, as I can no longer feel any pain. Or the wind. Or the cold, or the touch of a friend. It is a horrible way to live, only half alive. I am drowning, alive only in this suspended spiritual state. But being here in this world is not enough! I have to feel again or I will go mad, and I mourn the day when the Zoras no longer have me to speak for them. I beg of you to help me regain my body!"

"Well, maybe…I will…maybe…"

"Please, I implore you, sir!" Any more begging, and she'd be on her knees.

After leaving her there to plead a few more seconds, he smiled. _When plans come to fruition, indeed._ "Very well, then. I'll do it."

Laruto's eyes began to sparkle, helplessly hopeful. Pathetic Hylian. "Thank you, my friend—"

"Just one thing," he replied, his grin fading.

"Anything. Anything at all."

He knit his hands together. "How much do you like the Great Sea, Lady Laruto?"

The question caught her off guard. "I…don't understand what that has to do with this."

_More than you think_, he mused. "Sorry, let me rephrase that," he apologized, sitting down once more and gesturing for her to join him. "You hate the Rito, am I correct?"

The mere mention of the bird-people caused Laruto's face to flush with anger, and she curled her fists up furiously in her lap. "Those disgusting bird people? Of course. They tried to take our rightful place alongside the Golden Goddess Nayru, and they paid the price by disappearing along with their 'blessed' sea."

"If you got your body back, would you be willing to put up with them?

"You mean with the Rito? Yes." She was surprisingly quick to answer. "I hate them, but I'd rather have a body than a world free of them."

"And those of the Great Sea, like the Deku Scrubs and the spirits; would you be willing to deal with them again?"

"As well," Laruto replied.

"And if even more than the Great Sea comes to Hyrule—much, much more than you bargained for, I promise you that—and causes corruption and imbalance, you would still be happy?" A raised eyebrow, but she couldn't see it.

Laruto faltered an instant, then said, "…Absolutely. _Anything_ to truly live again!"

_You shouldn't have said those words,_ he thought, and his grin grew larger. He reached behind him for a scroll and undid the clasp on it, unfurling it and skimming over the words. "Let me get this straight. You are also a Sage, an Earth Sage, correct?"

"Yes. My powers have diminished over the years without a body, but they are not gone. I can still use a few abilities."

"Unfortunately, I cannot do what you ask of me alone. You must be willing to give me your powers—most of it, anyway—so that I may use them in the proper way that can restore your physical form."

"You _can_ do it though, can't you?"

He held up a hand in a calming gesture. "That's already been established, Lady Laruto. You do not possess the Ae skills to activate the spell I have in mind, while I do. But understand that this compromise will allow me practically unrestrained access to your soul's power."

"Why do you need my power?" she asked warily, eyes narrowing.

He responded with a grin. "My personal vendettas are not yours to meddle with, now are they?"

"Well, I should like to know—"

"If you still want my help, the correct answer to my question is 'no'." He held out the scroll once again when she didn't respond. "Sign at the bottom, and we have a deal." He slowly handed her a quill.

Laruto's pale fingers grasped it tightly enough to snap it in half. Then she asked him something. "One last question before I do this. The 'HMS' on your door. Does it…stand for what I think it does?"

"What do you think?" he replied, cocking his head to the side.

She waited for a moment. Looked to the door. Looked back at him. Glanced at the quill in her hand. Stared at the parchment roll on the floor ahead of her. Wondered what the hell she was getting herself into.

Signed it with a flourish, as quickly as possible. Handed him back the quill and said, "A deal. A deal with a demon."

"Those are the best kind! Well, then, our agreement is final. Let us begin!" He grabbed the crystal ball from next to him and blew off all the dust, rubbing it with his sleeve until the orb sparkled. As he peered into the orb, he said, "I look forward to doing business with you again, Lady Laruto!"

"…Wait a second, Sa—"

With a wave of his hand, Laruto disappeared, her words cut off mid-syllable. She would awake in her morning to find that she was no longer a transparent ghost, her body having been partially repaired overnight. The return of her coherence would be very gradual, so that nobody would notice until it was complete in about six months.

He sat in silence, a tiny part of him in the back of his head doubting that his plan would work. But why? Fate had never refused him before. Not with the Majora's Mask scuffle, and not with the craziness with that ocarina. He had Laruto's power now, but that wasn't the real reason that he had chosen today to begin his plan. Today was simply the right day to do it, and he was sure of it. If the Great Sea and its people were to return, but merge with Hyrule instead of drowning it, his plan would work. And if he wanted to prove that the heroes were incompetent, well; this was the perfect test.

"It's time to test the champions," he said to nobody in particular, as the image of roaring waves became visible in the crystal ball. The picture was gaining coherence and reality at an alarming pace, to the point where he swore that he could already here the waves crashing.

Offhand, he remembered something that he had said once to the Hero of Time. _You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?_

He scoffed to himself and shook his head. "Terrible fate? You ain't seen nothing yet."

And that was the day that the Happy Mask Salesman brought back the Great Sea.

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_The HyCoR Assembly Hall in Hyrule Castle_

_Two years after the defeats of Zant and Ganondorf_

_One year after the Great Fairy War_

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**"Members** of the Hylian Council of Races, it is time to begin!" Princess Zelda of the great nation of Hyrule called. She said so while slamming a big wooden gavel down on the table once, twice. When there was no reaction, she completed the gesture, dropping the gavel sarcastically with a third thunking sound.

Nobody listened. But was that a surprise? Of course not. Diplomats wouldn't listen to her if the great goddess Hylia herself had frozen them in positions in which they couldn't do anything else. Add the fact that her personal bodyguard and Hylian Councilman Impa was not there to calm her down or threaten representatives into submission, and there was no way to get their attention.

No, instead of trying again, Zelda gave up, flopping back into her chair with a whoosh of breath and playing with the sleeves of her white gloves. Ever since the Great Fairy War, the ambassadors to all the great races had gone berserk. And ever since the Great Sea had miraculously appeared surrounding Hyrule six months ago, they had gotten even worse. No surprise there, not after that mess. They deserved to be so power-hungry and protective, if not for a while. Wasn't that what the Council was created for, to protect Hyrule?

Didn't seem like it at the moment.

Still, Zelda mused as she watched the ensuing argument that was taking place on the council chamber floor, perhaps it was getting out of hand.

"Lady Laruto, you have no right to claim the Northern Delta!" a bellowing voice called. The new chieftain advisor of the Rito bird-people, Raegef, looked positively livid, the white feathers on his arms and head ruffling in fury. The beak positioned where a nose should be on his face glinted dangerously as the Rito leaped into the air and landed hard right in front of his target, the Zora representative. "Who gave you permission to do something so rash? This will not do, I cannot speak to you on such a fragile matter. I demand to speak to Prince Ralis about this!"

If Laruto showed any indication of intimidation, Zelda sure didn't see it. The Zoras were basically the direct opposite of the Rito, being fish-people instead of birds, and their frequent arguments only made them more antagonistic to each other. Laruto was a little different than most female Zoras, with greyish-blue skin and a fin draping down from the back of her head. Two similar fins tinged slightly darker than her normal skin were connected to her elbows, draping down loosely on her sides. Although most Zoras never wore clothing, Laruto didn't like that concept at all, and wore a sleeveless lavender robe with a white scarf around her neck, along with a crimson drapery on the front of her dress with her race's emblem. A golden crown-like headpiece sat atop her head, and matching golden armbands were linked around her upper arms and wrists. Something about her looked off today, like it wasn't really Earth Sage Laruto that Zelda was seeing.

"Master Raegef," she stated calmly, stepping forward so that her smooth blue eyes were staring directly into his fiery scarlet ones. The way she said _master_ always seemed to be in a pejorative connotation, no matter the situation. "There is no need to ask my Prince Ralis to confirm what I ask of the Council today. He appointed me himself, so I know all of his choices."

"Still, I resent the idea of a Sage as a council representative."

"…Is this really the time for you to complain over _rank_? My word," Laruto drawled icily. "I thought you were better than that, Master Raegef."

"I am not complaining over rank, as you believe. I hold just as esteemed of a position as you do—that of the intermediary between Prince Komali and the great dragon Valoo." Raegef seemed to swell with pride at the mention of the Rito guardian dragon, his feathers puffing up in a show of dignity.

"It's a shame that the dragon had to choose _you_ of all Rito." As Zelda watched, Laruto fiddled with the crown on her head and turned her back on the esteemed Rito representative. "I thought that sacred beings were at least smart. Was I wrong, Master Hylian Councilman?"

Judging from Raegef's reaction, this argument wasn't over. For a moment, his proud façade seemed to implode upon itself, and he wilted over for an instant. But then he stood straight up, glaring daggers at Laruto's head fin. He shreed once more and flapped his wings rapidly, his long purple robes and cape swirling in the wind he was creating. "You, lady Laruto, are an OUTRAGE! A pure, unadulterated OUTRAGE! I demand that the Council remove you from your seat and appoint someone more proper for the position. Perhaps your ruler himself—negotiating with him has proven…fruitful in a few cases. Ralis would be able to settle this much better than you can!"

"Well, if you wanted to speak to Prince Ralis, you shouldn't have even brought it up with me in the first place."

Raegef's brown face feathers turned a bright shade of red as he hissed at her. "Unfortunately, that is not an option, as I have been ordered to bring it up with you here! Prince Komali himself has chosen me for this job as well."

A tick mark appeared on her forehead. "Is that so? Maybe I should be talking to him instead of you."

"Yes, that's what you did last time in order to monopolize the Eastern Delta! And Lake Hylia! And the Snowpeak tributaries—"

"Which you gained!" Laruto pointed out, seething quietly through her teeth. Her fists clenched around her robe, crinkling the expensive fabric. "And may I remind you that the Great Sea cannot be inhabited by my people, due to excessive salinity! You can roam the islands as they please, but the only reason I was able to go there is because I am _dead_!"

The other ambassadors had remained silent until now, when the Mogma representative, Tanium, had to speak up. "Uh, Miss Laruto, 'bout that..." The Mogmas were a mole like race with fair skin and fur, living in volcanic areas underground. Tanium didn't look very comfortable in the bright light of the room, and Laruto's glare didn't help. "Ya look different, not all...specter-like."

"Your point?" she seethed.

"I was, uh…wondering… How did ya...ya know...get your new looks?"

New looks. That was it. That was why Laruto looked different. She had died long ago, but her spirit had lingered in this world to help see to the defeat of Ganondorf when he had appeared in the Great Sea. When she had died, she had turned see-through, like a specter that you could only see out of the corner of your eyes. But now, she was a full flesh-and-blood Zora, a living being once more.

How the heck.

Zelda stood as the remaining ambassadors quieted down, smoothing down her white-and-fuchsia dress and straightening the intricate gold plating on her shoulders and part of her neck. "I must second his comment," she said, casting a glance at the assorted ambassadors before continuing. "Lady Laruto, explain what actions you have taken to the council."

The sage glared at Tanium and Raegef poisonously before looking off into the distance, towards the doors to the assembly chamber. "I made a deal with a demon," Laruto said quietly.

For a moment, the room was completely and utterly silent. Zelda found that she suddenly had the urge to simply laugh it off, but Laruto's nervous expression quickly stilled any chuckle in coming.

Then Raegef took action and growled at the spirit, pointing an accusing feathered finger at her. As Laruto's head snapped towards him in shock and surprise, he yelled, "Fool! Lies, lies and deception! You stupid woman, no drastic action is to ever be taken before consulting the council!"

"It was not drastic action, it was none of your business." She spun on her heel as if to act defiant, but the quaver in her voice was obvious. "None of your business at all what I do with my own spirit, esteemed Master Raegef."

Tanium held up a foot to comment, his hands occupied by his standing on them. Not even a moment after his gesture, Raegef, Laruto, and Zelda all yelled a resounding "What?!"

"I..." The Mogma gulped and shifted the digging miner's pack on his back. "Ya three are psycho, ya know that?" He chuckled nervously when they didn't reply, then grinned with his sharp teeth. "I heard 'nuff. Laruto, if ya did what ya wanted to, then it's a-okay in my book."

A few other ambassadors agreed halfheartedly, but Zelda could still see the majority of the Councilmen either ignoring the conversation or making ancient hexes to ward off evil. Laruto was directly at the center of their suspicion.

Laruto appeared to have gotten tired of being the center of attention, and began to speak. "Princess Zelda, I do not appreciate the Council meddling into my personal choices. On that note, let us move on. Now, if you would be so kind as to make my plea official in regards to the Northern Delta?"

Before Zelda had a chance to decline, Raegef burst forward again. "I object! This woman has no use for the Delta—she said herself she and her people can't go there—while the Rito do! Please, I implore you to annex it as part of the Great Sea territories!"

"Raegef, I was about to agree with you," she deadpanned. "You _cannot_ be serious right now."

"Don't be hasty, Your Majesty," Laruto shrilled. "I would not recommend supporting Raegef's people. Beside, I cannot and will not negotiate with such a territorial man!"

"And I will not cooperate with one who made a deal with a demon!"

"My personal choices are none of your business, Master Raegef!"

"Agh!" he cried. "You're impossible! Why couldn't our respective rulers simply argue this point themselves?" Raegef fumed, asking the same question that Zelda was wondering. "Honestly, that Ralis of yours is such an impetuous boy, sending you of all people to negotiate on the Hylian Council."

Laruto opened her mouth to say something biting, then sighed.

And somebody decided to say it for her.

"Now then, ol' 'Master Raegef'—nice title, by the way—that's not nice to say at all. That deserves a response of equal insult! Ya know…word gets around my desert faster than you'd believe. Would ya like to know what Prince Ralis thinks of your esteemed young bird-boy, Raegef?" a voice drawled.

Zelda held back a groan, but Laruto wasn't as fortunate. Of all the people to butt into the fragile conflict between the Rito and Zora tribes, it just had to be the Gerudo ambassador, didn't it?

"Kyrior," Zelda seethed, poison in her words as she searched the council room for him and eventually found him sitting atop a pillar. "I swear to Hylia, if you say anything that could—"

"Aw, shut it, Your Highness. You talk too much—let someone else have a say, would ya?" The dark-skinned man grinned at Zelda's livid expression as he jumped down from his perch atop a pillar and landed soundlessly between the two warring representatives. As he scanned the faces of the terrified ambassadors scattered across the hall, he laughed, running his fingers through his short red hair. A short grey cloak with red and blue markings on the hem was over his brown tunic, which was secured by a grey cloth sash around his waist. He wore brown baggy pants under the tunic, a sword attached to the side for more than just show. And she knew—she had seen him use it before, and he was a swordsman to be reckoned with. Cloth wrappings wound their way around his wrists and ankles, stopping at his hands and bare feet for maximum mobility. A large number of piercings decorated his ears, and a red diamond sparkled directly in the center of his forehead.

Kyrior Ambala, the most recent male Gerudo to be crowned Gerudo King. Oh, how Zelda hated him. He was a real "special" case, at least to a degree—apparently the young man had appeared before Ganondorf and Zant had surfaced, but had remained hidden for the entire time until his predecessor had died. Then he had simply appeared from Great Bay's pirate fortress a few weeks later announcing himself as the true Gerudo King, and the Gerudo women had fallen all over him after that. Besides being known for his vital role in ending the Great Fairy War, he was known to be the playboy of Hyrule—exactly the opposite kind of person to one who should be on the HyCoR. He also tended to get in the way of her making decisions a lot, as she was the same rank as him.

Yep, Zelda couldn't stand the guy.

"As I was sayin' before Zelda had to interrupt me," Kyrior said, golden eyes flashing with mischief, "I heard some juicy tidbits on Prince Ralis's true feelings for the wonderful, _wonderful_ Rito. Something about…drowning them all, takin' 'em back under, to where they should have stayed?"

As was only appropriate for this situation, Zelda facepalmed.

The look on Laruto's face would have been priceless at another time, but right now it only confirmed what he said.

You could have heard a pin drop.

Raegef looked about to explode. "King Kyrior, I suggest you stay out of our matters. This is strictly between the Zoras and the Rito—"

"It got worse than that, of course." With a shark's grin, he looked directly at the youthful Kokiri representative, who shrank back and hid behind her chair to bury herself under the seat. "I could repeat what my sources told me. But there's children in this room, and I wouldn't want 'em to hear such foul language."

The entirety of the Hylian Council of Races let out a strangled gasp, was silent for an instant, and then simultaneously exploded into an uproar. Ambassadors took this chance to start fights over disjunctive opinions, some of them even beginning to throw punches and draw weapons. All around, the meeting that had started out fairly orderly showed signs of being a disastrous failure.

"That is a lie, Kyrior!" Laruto yelled, pointing an accusing webbed finger directly at his face and trying to cover up for her prince. "You have no right to butt into the Zora Prince's personal life and use his own opinions to your mischievous advantage!"

Kyrior was ignoring everything, one hand on his chin. He was purposely thinking out loud, just riling everyone up as he paced the length of the floor. "…Or maybe it wasn't Ralis who said that bit, maybe it was Princess Ruto? I can't be sure of things anymore. And then—you'll like this bit, Zelda—I found out that Komali had a similar opinion of his fishtailed predecessors. He said the fish in Lake Hylia looked tasty...if ya know what I mean. And something about Link disgracing his hero title every time he wore the Zora Mask—he looks stupid in a skirt, by the way…"

That was it! Zelda had had ENOUGH. You didn't disrespect the Hero of Time in front of her, ever. Especially not after all Link had done, not only as a HyCoR ambassador and informant, but as the savior of their country dozens of times over. Especially when he had saved her life time and time again. So if Kyrior wasn't going to shut up, she would make him.

"Kyrior!" she roared, stepping away from her seat to face him on the floor. Her yell was so loud and pronounced that it instantly halted the commotion of the Council. The 41 remaining Hylian Councilmen, including Laruto and Raegef, slowly took their seats, watching the Hylian princess and Gerudo King.

She reached for the long bejeweled sheath on her hip and withdrew her sword, an ornamented golden longsword that had been passed down her family line for generations. Kyrior watched the glimmering metal with an amused expression on his face.

"I told you not to say anything, Kyrior. Maybe those words haven't sunk in because you're not threatened by me yet."

Tanium looked up and said, "_I'm_ very threatened by ya, Princess."

"With all due respect? _Shut up, Councilman Tanium_."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Kyrior let out a brusque laugh at this exchange. "Ha! Now that's funny."

"Maybe if I knock some sense into you, you'll think differently?"

"Double ha! You would challenge _me_, the Gerudo King, hero of the Great Fairy War, to a _duel_? Over what? The gossip's already out; and even if you somehow won, killing me wouldn't help either of us. Killing _you_, however, would win me a throne."

She faltered a little at that when his statement actually carried a little validity, and faltered even more when Kyrior drew his sword. It was a pure black katana, shining brightly despite its dark color, with a fuchsia hilt and a golden hand guard inlaid with multiple shining amber and ruby stones. The amount of blood his blade had spilt was unparalleled—even Link himself had defeated fewer enemies than Kyrior had.

As soon as Zelda saw the blade unsheathed, she recalled a moment of the recent war that had befallen their land. The Great Fairy War was a battle of Terminan independence that had been sparked by the Great Fairies of Termina almost immediately after Ganondorf's defeat. They had believed in Termina holding a superior magical power that granted to, and had requested their removal from the Provinces of Hyrule to start their own empire of what they claimed to be "other worlds worthy of the Terminan blessing". After the HyCoR's stolid refusal—a vote of 39 to 4 against due to their claim to Terminan supremacy—the Terminan Great Fairies had attacked their Hyrule equivalents and massacred them as a warning. This prompted a yearlong and painful war that had called for the greatest heroes of true war; Link, however, was not one of these, as he had never stood among an army of soldiers and charged the enemy.

But then Kyrior came along, out of nowhere, and brought the fight to them. Winning skirmish after skirmish soon turned to major victories against the corrupted magical forces of Termina, who had been unable to advance past the barrier forest between their worlds. Zelda had joined him in battle numerous times, although they had scarcely ever worked together.

Everything had ended swiftly after the last attack called the Hellfire, in which Kyrior had slain the Great Fairy masterminding the battle by singlehandedly tearing through her woodland forces, neatly cleaving her in half, and burning the remains to ashes with his magic. Zelda had been there, about to fire a Light Arrow at the Fairy and banish her to the Silent Realm as punishment, when Kyrior had attacked. And Zelda would never forget his expressionless appearance as the Gerudo King killed a god on Earth with little to no difficulty. She had called out to him in fury, and he had snapped around at her and stared at her with those horrible bright eyes of his, burning with malice and loathing and mischief. And glee, pure unadulterated glee. He had _enjoyed _killing her.

The sheer horror of a deified Great Fairy being murdered by a mortal was enough to scare the remaining forces into surrendering. However, they had gotten their wish anyway—all Hylian maps counting Termina as a province were burned and replaced with new ones that distinguished the country as separate. No Terminans were allowed into Hyrule, and no Hylians into Termina—no need for a law to point it out, because no Hylians wanted any contact with the pompous Terminans anyway, and vice versa. The two were as separate as could be, save for the lawless merchants who dared to traverse the woods in between.

Today was a day before the anniversary of the Hellfire, and you can be sure that Kyrior was drunk on his past glory. He had enjoyed killing a Great Fairy? He would _certainly_ enjoy killing Zelda, the mortal embodiment of Hylia's power. The fact that it would be basically a public execution would make Kyrior even happier.

"C'mon, then," Kyrior sneered, shifting his katana in his hand so he was holding it with the blade up against his arm and the hilt facing the floor. She had seen him in that stance too many times to ignore his menacing aura now. If she just barely squinted and looked directly at the tip of his blade, she could almost see the dark and cold energy surrounding the newest Gerudo King. "Let's see what you're made of! It's an even battle; your light magic and justice-dealing sword that hasn't seen a drop of blood whilst in your hands, and my fire magic and notorious blade that fell a Great Fairy."

To prove his point about the level playing field, he held out the katana. A bright spark lit up the tip of the blade, glowing brighter and brighter until the spark exploded in a burst of flames. Magic, just like hers, but darker, colder. Fire against light. She hated that type of magic.

"I've been dyin' to fight you, Princess Zelda of Hyrule. Or kill ya. Either works in my book. But it's gotta be quick, because Nabooru's visitin' later and I'll need to clean up before I see her."

She clenched her hands tighter around the hilt of her blade. Well, he was certainly serious about killing her, and about fighting at the best of his abilities. But if she fought him, there was no guarantee that she would lose either. The Gerudos would be enraged if she killed Kyrior. The entire _kingdom_ would be furious if Kyrior killed her. No way to win this situation.

What else could she do?

Ignoring the dark energy and flames around his body, Zelda walked up to him slowly, stopped when she was about a foot from him. The shadows around him were suffocating her, making the air hard to breathe. Kyrior was about six inches taller than her, looking down on her with an amused but cold expression.

"You got somethin' to say, your Highness?" he whispered, as the flames flickered a little brighter.

After a few moments' silence, she looked directly into his painful glowing scarlet eyes and growled, "Kyrior, you think you're perfect, don't you? Wise up, right now. Who cares if you're older, a better warrior, more famous for being _my_ kindgom's sex idol? I'm the better _leader_ here, and that's what matters. For crying out loud, I haven't seen a Gerudo guard on duty in months. You're slacking off, not even attempting to be the king your people need. Even Ganondorf's better than you—at least he knows his limits. If I were you, I would watch my mouth while I was _still_ part of this Council. Be careful though; that could change at any moment. I am the ruling body of this council, me and only me. I'm feeling nice today, though, so I think I'll let you play king for a bit longer. Don't EVER make me change my mind."

The Skyloftian representative whistled a cat-call and was rewarded with a death glare.

His flames flickered out instantly, just like that. Struck by her threat, Kyrior took a step back, and Zelda sheathed her sword as she walked towards the doors. She sent a few glares at Raegef and Laruto, who both looked furious and as embarrassed as their minds could physically allow at the same time. _Finally, something those two can agree on._

"Anyone else have any complaints as to today's…we'll call them 'events'?"

Silence on the floor.

"That's what I thought. Meeting adjourned until all of you learn what _cooperation and sanity_ are," she fumed, slamming the door behind her.

Kyrior scoffed and hurled his katana at the door with a whoosh of fire, where it lodged itself in the wood. "We gave up on those the moment we _agreed_ to even create this stupid thing!"

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**Hey, JTS here! What do ya think? Feel free to let me know how it is or if you have questions or anything. It's my first story, so I'm open to suggestions for other stories and the like. This story will be long, and most posts will be fairly frequent. If they're not, feel free to rant.**

**That's right, I said I'd point out OC's! So... Kyrior Ambala is an OC, simply because I like the idea of Zelda having to work with a Gerudo male with the same rank as her. Raegef is also a new character, and Tanium, but don't expect them to come back so often. They're just part of the HyCoR, or the Hylian Council of Races that Zelda created to control problems in Hyrule before things get out of hand. There will be many more OC's, just a warning. Stay tuned for the next chapter, finally with some Dragonball Z-ness!**

**JTS out!**


	2. The Consequences of Being Curious

**JTS here, back with AFLCH's second chapter! I'm really happy that i've already gotten reviews and follows and favorites after so few days! I'm glad my readers are enjoying what I'm writing, and seeing the alert emails from FanFiction makes me go all kawaii at the best moments. So thanks!**

**I promised Dragonball Z-ness, and here it is. The introduction of the heroes and some of the villains is in here, just like I promised.**

**To CharlieTheTurdil: OMGFIRSTREVIEWKAWAIIFREAKOUTTHANKUTHANKUTHANKU! But seriously. In answer to your question about the Skyloftians, well, my idea is this. I wanted to have as many characters from tLoZ in play as possible, so I incorporated Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Spirit Tracks, Wind Waker, a little of the Oracle games, and Four Swords. The premise is that, after the events of Skyward Sword (first in the ****timeline), the Hylians explored and found the rest of Hyrule, which leads me to the map of Twilight Princess. Areas from both games are incorporated on that assumption. As a result, somewhere around 90% of all the Hylian races will be included at one point or another in AFLCH. With the Skyloftians, i'm assuming that they haven't all come down from the sky, and Skyloft still functions as well as it used to. I hope this helps!**

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**DISCLAIMER: I, JTS, do not own Dragon Ball Z or the Legend of Zelda. However, I did come up with a few OC's and spells myself, which I'll point out at the end of each chapter so there's no confusion.**

**WARNING: Every section following this sentence contains SPOILERSSSSSSS for both series! Read at your own risk!**

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The Consequences of Being Curious Can Be All Too Dire

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_Atop Kami's Lookout, somewhere in Japan_

_Six months after the HyCoR assembly_

_One day after the defeat of Perfect Cell_

_Ten minutes before the Aeforce_

_..._

**"And** there they go. Thank _God_ that's over!" Yamcha sighed as Shenron flew into the sky and split into the Dragonballs, the seven glowing orange orbs speeding away from the Lookout. The atmosphere quickly faded from black back to the normal blue of mid-morning in Japan; the effects of Shenron's appearance must have worn off with their second wish.

"…Have the Z fighters ever encountered anything like that…that _monster _before?" Dende asked with a quaver in his voice. The little Namekkian was shaking terribly, despite the fact that he was supposed to be Guardian of Earth. Although he couldn't do anything very Guardian-like besides summon a wish-granting dragon, the powers had been passed down to him, so it's not like he had much of a choice.

The responses to his horrible question came quickly. "No." Yamcha, obviously—although in some people straightforwardness is admired, he was the only one with the inability to answer with a unique response. How much more bland could the guy be? That guy made Dende happy to have some extra cannon-fodder on hand.

"Hell, no." Tien, a tall, buff, three-eyed step above Yamcha, was next to respond. "I would have rather killed myself than seen that."

"Sorry you couldn't" was Dende's monotonous reply.

Tien's little psychic kid friend, Chiaotzu, groaned. "So many bruises, oh…"

"Are you okay, Chiaotzu?"

"Bromance," Yamcha grumbled.

"I heard that!" Tien said with a hiss.

"Does Zarbon count?" Gohan asked woozily. Dende couldn't really see him from here—the young Saiyan was probably somewhere behind him, sprawled out on the floor somewhere. Couldn't blame him, not after he defeated Cell on his own. That kind of ordeal was too exhausting for anyone to be sensate and walking after.

"Doesn't matter. Is she gone?" Piccolo, his Namekkian mentor, asked. Normally, Dende would be the scared one, and Piccolo would be the collected one, but the roles had reversed after this strange turn of events.

"Yes," Dende replied.

_"I'm in Heaven, and that scared the life out of me!"_ That one was Goku, the high and mighty (and dead) hero of Japan. He had committed kamikaze…or something along those lines, in order to help defeat their most recent enemy, the monster known as Perfect Cell. It had taken everyone else's strength—well, actually, just Gohan's hidden power and a tiny amount of vengeance from Vegeta, long story—to defeat the monster; Goku's death had done more or less NOTHING to help. All it left Dende with was Future Trunks's half-dead body to heal (courtesy of Cell's knack for unwanted reappearances) and you can be sure that Trunks was not happy about that.

"Shut up, Kakarrot, you imbecile! Stop gloating over the fact that you're in Heaven and know I'm never going there! And as for me, I'm in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and I'm never coming out!" a gruff voice yelled. Well, that was definitely Vegeta himself, the Prince of All (Three) Saiyans. He had retreated there after the terrifying non-canon events of ten minutes ago had become too unbearable to stand.

"I'm surrounded by _idiots_," a girl whispered hoarsely, so quiet that Dende wouldn't have heard her if his ears hadn't been supersize. Could that be…no. Android Eighteen, the blonde android that they had saved from Cell? Hadn't she left already?

"Now all we can do is wait to make the next wishes," Future Trunks said as he lifted himself off of the ground. His story was pretty messed up, involving an apocalyptic alternate timeline in which everyone was killed by Android Eighteen and her brother, Seventeen. Trunks had come to the official timeline to warn everyone, but had altered the future, resulting in the rise of Cell. Add the fact that he was the grown-up future version of Vegeta's child with the mechanic named Bulma Briefs, and he pretty much had it worse than everyone. Plus, the lavender hair probably earned a little more attention than he would like.

"Is everyone okay?" Dende asked. He got a few mixed mumbles from everybody, more or less saying that they would be better in a few minutes.

Except for Krillin. Who was currently too busy whining and massaging the large bump on his chrome-dome head to answer.

Piccolo sighed as he realized that the hideous creation had disappeared, straightening the cap on his head in a way that must have calmed him down. "Oh, thank Kami. She's finally gone."

"I'll freakin' say!" Vegeta's voice yelled from inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

"You're in a different dimension, how the hell can you hear me?" Piccolo roared.

"I left the door open, big-ears!"

"Shut up, virgin!"

"I'm not a virgin, my kid's right in front of you!

"Leave me out of this, please," Trunks begged.

"Be quiet, Trunks! If you hadn't had a hole blasted through your chest less than two hours ago, I'd come out there and do it myself! And by the way, Piccolo, what you said; this is coming from the green slug-man?"

"It's actually half lizard—oh, GO TO HELL!"

Trunks tried to make himself look smaller.

"You've got to be kidding," Tien groaned, not referring to the squabble between prince and god, but to the Dragonballs and their unfortunate disappearance. "Now what do we do? I had a wish to make, but there aren't enough wishes to go around."

"What do you mean?" Dende frowned. "I made Shenron to grant two wishes instead of one. You should be grateful!" Honestly, these humans couldn't get more unappreciative.

"I know, I know, but still." Tien shrugged, his third eye blinking lazily.

"Two wishes from Shenron is nothing. Porunga grants three wishes, you imbeciles," Vegeta called. "Shenron pales in comparison to that Namekkian dragon. So if you wanted results, you should have gone for a Guardian that wasn't a two-year old!"

"I'm ten!" Dende protested.

"You're _ten_?" Gohan asked incredulously. "I'm eleven, and twice your height!"

"Pfft. Ingrates. Well, Tien, if you bring the Dragonballs here, we can maybe grant your probably-unimportant wish and restore the damage done by Cell to the environment." Dende crossed his arms and forced a smile.

"That's a great idea, Dende. We could do that as soon as the Dragonballs are restored," Krillin supplied, finally sensate.

That statement made Tien pale with embarrassment. "Well, now my wish to get rid of the third eye seems stupid. Ah, someone else can have the second one."

"This coming from the guy who claimed there…'weren't enough wishes to go around'?" an innocent Dende commented.

Suddenly, the plot twist occurred, like no plot twist Dende had ever felt before. It wasn't like that time when he had come back from the dead, or when he had become best friends with Earthlings, or when Nail and Piccolo had fused. This plot twist felt…different. Darker.

Dende faltered as he felt a strange imbalance of power appear for an instant and then vanish. The sound of lapping ocean waves was fresh in his mind for an instant, and then faded as soon as it had appeared. He caught his balance and looked to the sky.

"Something's not right."

"What's up?" Tien asked.

"One, two, three, four, five, six…" He yelped. "How in Porunga's name?! The Dragonballs are still holding their Ki energy charge, but I can only sense six of them!"

"And what am _I _supposed to do about it?" Vegeta yelled.

"Go back in your cell!" Piccolo roared, throwing a flowerpot against the Hyperbolic Time Chamber's door.

Dende looked from face to face, an inexperienced guardian in need of help. "It's like one of them just disappeared!"

"You _lost_ the Dragonballs," Trunks said incredulously. "Are you serious?"

"That's…that's impossible," Yamcha stuttered. "How can that be?"

Vegeta chose this moment to kick the door to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber off its hinges, causing it to slam into the pillar that concealed Android Eighteen and knock her off into the air. With an angry yell and a few curse words that even Dende (what with such "colorful" company as Vegeta and Piccolo) had never heard before, she flew down through the clouds before anyone but Dende could see her.

"Touchy," Krillin said, staring off almost-longingly at the remains of Eighteen's hiding spot.

The prince sighed and walked out into the open, savoring the looks on everyone's faces. "Alright, miserable clods, I'm back, here to fix the problems you weaklings have caused."

Piccolo facepalmed. "And just when I was looking for a few moments of peace."

"I can break your face in pieces if you'd like!"

"Worst pun. EVER."

Dende furrowed his brow, trying to concentrate. _Where's Mr. Popo? He might know what to do about the Dragonballs. _At last, he got this faint, faint Ki energy reading from the Dragonball. It wasn't faint like 'normal human Ki energy' faint. It was faint as in, 'Holy Shenron, how far away _is_ this thing?' faint. Then he tuned out as much noise and false positive readings as he could, and presto! There it was…

Surrounded by an energy barrier, which was in turn surrounded by a void, which was in turn completely separating that little pocket of existence inside the energy barrier from Japan. And somewhere inside that area, despite the lack of a specific location, was the undeniable energy reading from the One Star Dragonball.

A sweat drop streaked down the little green boy's face. _Alternate dimension? No biggie. No biggie whatsoever. _"…I think I can sense it. It looks like it's gone somewhere that I can't sense so easily. It also seems like there's a weird energy barrier protecting that unknown region, but it's still part of our world. The only reason we can't see it on our own is that it's a separate pocket of existence."

"So we could walk through it without even realizing?" Trunks, truly his scientifically inclined mother's son, looked positively elated to hear this possibility.

Not wanting to give him too much encouragement, Dende straightened up and looked expectantly at the Z Fighters. "Well, you're going to have to go and get it if we want to restore the damage done by Cell."

"Why not you, great and powerful little Guardian?" Vegeta asked, walking up to Dende and leaning down so he was level with the little boy's face. "Why us?"

"Because I'm powerless and weak and can't do anything but heal you guys?" offered the green boy.

Vegeta accepted that without complaint and straightened up, turning away and leaning against a pillar.

Piccolo took one look at the wrecked Lookout before sighing. "…I agree with Dende. Somebody needs to get the seventh Dragonball so some crackpot doesn't get it first. You could do that," he suggested, nodding at Tien, Chiaotzu, Krillin and Future Trunks. He stood up and stretched, yawning in the process. "In fact, maybe I'll go with you. Anything to get away from here and forget that the…demon…from before…existed." After a little shudder, he finally regained the stolid demeanor that he was known for.

"I'm going to go too." Gohan stood up, looking around with a firm resolve. "Please, Piccolo?" He looked at his old, green-skinned mentor, pleading in his eyes. "I may only be eleven, but I'm stronger than all of you combined." He turned to the shadows of Kami's Lookout, eying a ticked-off Vegeta with an equally disenchanted look. "You too."

Vegeta took a few steps towards Gohan, meeting him with a loathsome glare. "Listen, boy, I know that you're stronger than me, you don't have to rub it in." He turned away, growling. "No matter how much I train, you and your blasted father always seem to surpass me!" But when he turned back to the Z Fighters, he did so smirking. "Well, now that Kakarrot is dead, I should have a lot less competition. After all, children just don't have the drive, and I don't see you becoming like your miserable failure of a father anytime soon."

In a flash, Gohan turned Super Saiyan, his hair turning a fiery yellow and his eyes changing from black to green. "You jerk! Take what you said about my father _back_!"

Vegeta maintained his calm composure, still looking at the young boy. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said mockingly. "Did I upset you? Wise up, kid—your dad's gone. Accept it, or you're going to waste all of your energy before we even go to this…place."

Vegeta watched with a triumphant smirk as Gohan reverted from his Super Saiyan form. Then he proclaimed loudly, "I'm going, but only for the entertainment." He faced the rest of the Z Fighters and wiped the smirk from his face. "Let me make it perfectly clear that I don't care about repairing the damage Cell did, unless the damage was to me or to family." He cast an ambivalent glance at Trunks, who looked about as embarrassed as he could possibly be. "I don't care about this pathetic planet. I just need something to do, and my schedule is open."

Gohan looked at Dende, a thirst for adventure in his eyes. "So, Dende. How do we get there?"

"Hello, Dende."

The young Guardian spun around with a yelp to face Mr. Popo, who had come up right behind him without him even realizing. "Oh my god, Mr. Popo. You scared me. Any ideas?"

"I suppose…yes, it's possible. I've heard Kami mention this one specific Namekkian magic spell that can summon a portal to another world, a portal called an Aeforce. It's rumored that these portals lead to a hidden world that is just beyond normal sight—that might be the world in question," Mr. Popo suggested. "If I quickly showed Dende the texts that would allow one to summon this Aeforce, we'd be able to penetrate the energy field around the Dragonball. However, there is a catch. As the human world and the Otherworld are connected, and the magic concerning our Aeforce is sketchy at best, opening a portal here may possibly open one in the Otherworld, or even—Kami forbid—Hell itself." Popo's eyes spread wide. "Anyone could get in or out!"

"That's a risk we're going to have to take. I'd rather _that_ than an alien coming into our world first and wishing for immortality. Remember Garlic Jr.?"

"Eww, no, I hate garlic," Gohan said.

"Luckily, the instructions to create an Aeforce aren't as difficult as you'd think." Popo leaned forward and quickly gave Dende the directions to make such a world-breaching portal. "You can figure out the rest by instinct, lad—just follow the magic."

Dende spread his hands in front of him to create the portal, but then stopped and looked back at Mr. Popo. "I have a question, though. Can I go too? I'd really like to see this new place and spend some time with my friends."

"Of course you can, Dende. The portal should be able to sustain itself. Now you should get started."

Dende nodded silently, dreading what he felt was going to go horribly wrong. He then spread his hands, chanting in his native language. Around him, waves of light warped through the air. The waves twisted and gyrated into a door-sized, black rectangle. The outer edge of the rectangle was lined with twisted purple energy, which swirled around violently. Satisfied to a degree, not with the appearance but the steady energy signature, Dende lowered his hands.

"So this is the legendary Aeforce," Popo murmured, going unheard by even the Namekkians.

Well, I can honestly say that Vegeta wasted no time. As soon as Dende stopped created the portal, Vegeta flew in, grinning coldly as he left everyone behind and disappeared. Tien, Chiaotzu, Krillin, and Dende then followed him in, not in the least bit hesitant.

Gohan, Trunks, and Piccolo were a little more patient, and stayed behind to get ready for the trip. Trunks changed from his tattered Saiyan battle armor into his Capsule Corp. outfit and jacket that his mother had made for him, and slipped his sword over his shoulder. He then grabbed the Dragon Radar and the small box that held the capsule that grew into his time machine.

Gohan looked at Piccolo, who was putting a pouch of Senzu beans in his belt. "Piccolo," Gohan said. The Namek turned to his young pupil. "Do you know what we might see there?"

Piccolo chuckled. "I have no idea what we're going to find. But hopefully, something we find is the seventh Dragonball." He ruffled the demi-saiyan's hair, which caused him to laugh.

Trunks walked up to them, his need for adventure evident in his shining eyes. "Let's go." Piccolo and Trunks ran into the portal, followed by Gohan. "Bye, Mr. Popo," Gohan shouted as he was swallowed up by the darkness of the Aeforce.

Popo waved to the young Saiyan, only to realize that he was gone, and then wondered what exactly he had gotten that young boy into.

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_Somewhere_

_Five minutes after the Aeforce_

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**Nobody** ever asked Willford Grandine what he wanted. Nobody really cared what he wanted, anyway. They came to him with problems.

People liked talking to Willford. The people he liked, he let them call him Will, or Grandine, or Hailstorm or even just Hail—because that's what _grandine_ meant in this foreign language that he had discovered known as Italian. That's what Will did. He discovered things, as any intuitive person would do. He would listen to the people that came to him, and would learn from them. And as payment, he would share whatever knowledge or advice or words of friendship he could.

It was hard for people to visit Will, because, to be honest, he didn't see how he could leave an address when he didn't even know where he was. Or rather, he knew _where_ he was, but the exact _location_ that he was in liked to move around a lot. He knew he was in a sword, a sword called the Master Sword, but not the real one. That one was Fi, one of the few names that he knew of the real world. Fi, the Sword Spirit that served alongside the Hero of Time. He knew of her because he looked like her—almost everybody that came to visit him said so. Just like her, his eyes had no pupils and were the same color as his face and hair. But Fi had blue, aqua blue for her hair; his similar but shorter hair and skin and eyes were a lightish spring green. Just like her, there was a diamond on his chest, silver-leaded and bright magenta. While Fi wore a dress in the same shade of purple that covered her right arm, he wore the same garb in white, and black leggings with blue wrappings underneath. He didn't have hands, more like flowing arms—same as Fi—but his left arm was the same color as his skin and his right arm the same as his tunic.

They said he talked like Fi too, in that unanimously unknown yet universally understood language that she spoke in. He was rational and calm, sweet and caring. He praised anything that had to do with good.

His master hadn't been like that.

His master—he had long since forgotten his name—had neglected to tell him anything other than that the Hero of Time was evil beyond comparison. But he couldn't believe such assumptions—someone with a title including the word "hero" clearly had some background that had earned it. That had led Will to think that maybe his master was evil.

Some people also compared Will to Demon Lord Ghirahim, which scared him greatly because Ghirahim was the spirit of the Dark Master Sword—the weapon of the Demon King himself—and not exactly the nicest guy. They said he talked like Ghirahim too, with a twist of sarcasm at times but with real emotion still showing through. His eyes had soul, like the evil Demon Lord—not calculating slits like the eyes of Fi. His hair, while pointed like Fi's, looked more like Ghirahim's, and his tunic and left arm were the same color as Ghirahim's bleached-white eyes. That, they had in common. Well, that and the fact that Will actually had feelings.

That was the one thing Will resented about the idea of Fi—that she was heartless. Not necessarily bad, but without bias or connections. Just empty. How could someone so like him be heartless? Did that make him like that? No, he had discovered that he couldn't do what he did for others and be heartless at the same time.

As bad as Ghirahim sounded, he seemed like an...interesting guy. Will would have loved to meet him one day, or even just see him for an instant. Or Fi. All the people in Hyrule came to talk to him, and not one brought him a Pictograph of them.

They did say one thing about him that was unique, though, and not borrowed from a haphazard OTP meme construction. He was surprisingly short, looking about the height of an average fourteen-year old. Fi was fairly tall, as was Ghirahim. Will was unique in his size. Big heart, small stature, they said. Will never felt insulted.

Will hadn't been born—he had simply appeared in this place, the Master Sword copy, with basic knowledge of a few colors and normal kindergarten-level vocabulary. Those he hadn't discovered—but Will had been discovering things ever since he had appeared in the emptiness of what he now called home. He had discovered that, where he was, there was no blue sky, or green grass. There was only an inch of clear water covering the ground, and that was it for miles upon white empty miles. He had looked down at the ground, saw his feet, and then saw his own face, and discovered that his eyes were green, and so was the rest or his head. Then he discovered his arms, and his lack of hands, and his back, and the big magenta crystal on his chest.

He then discovered he needed a name, like all the colors he had assigned to himself. So he started playing around with sounds until he found something interesting. He liked W, and L was fun to roll around as he spoke. F and T were nice too, so he said them all together. WLFT sounded weird to him, so he added in a couple vowels and a spare R and changed it to Willfort. Then he decided it sounded too flashy with the T at the end and changed it to a D, and got his name. Willford. Which he could shorten to Will.

After his name, he discovered that if he thought about something hard enough, the crystal on his chest would start to glow with emerald bright light. He had discovered that, if he concentrated enough on air and only air, he could float off the ground. Then he could move on air as if he were walking. To go back to the water, he only had to think of solid ground, and back down he was. It got easier and more natural to pull off the more he practiced, to the point where Will didn't need to think to fly. He just did.

He had tried to discover more, but there was only so much one could discover in a place where nothing happened. All that came to him were basic adjectives in his vocabulary, so that by the time he looked about fourteen, he knew a mere portion of the descriptive words any teenager his age would know.

He had sat in the water, in silence, waiting for anything, for years, aging slowly and stopping when he looked still fairly youthful.

Dreaming for anything.

And then, the first person had come to him. 29 years ago, almost exactly.

He hadn't known then that she was a, well, she. He would discover that later. But she had the same color on her dress, the purplish one that was on his tunic, and perhaps a little darker. And there was white too, near her upper body. Besides that, he didn't recognize the colors on the armor of her shoulders or the color of her hair. It looked to be the opposite of white, which he soon discovered was called black.

Whoever she was, she looked disoriented. She had just stumbled out of the whiteness around Will and crashed directly into him. The impact had no effect on Will except to startle him.

"Oh!" she yelped, and flew back to land on her back. Her voice seemed soft, like Will's, but a little bit deeper and more mature. She was taller than him, he discovered, at least by a head's distance.

"Can you talk?" he asked her, floating above to stare into her eyes. They had little tiny black dots in them, surrounded by a ring of the same color as the armor. Beautiful.

The person looked down at her stomach with shock, as if she was surprised to see her own body.

"...Hello?" Will innocently asked, waving an arm in her face.

She ignored every gesture she made as she stared at her two hands like they were devil spawn. "Am...am I alive still?" she breathed.

"Hellooooo?" he dragged out, almost yelling in exasperation.

"...Sorry, young one," she said after a beat, looking into Will's big green eyes. Young one? Does this mean she has been around longer than me? Maybe she knows something about the world outside. "Hello to you too. Who are you?"

"Willford. I tried being Willfort, with a T, but I didn't like it."

"Ah. Not Kami, then."

"Kami? And anyway, who are you?" he retorted. He hadn't meant it to come out like that, but it had anyway.

"Kami is my people's word for God. As for me…my name is Rosicheena. I am a queen" was the person's reply as she got to her feet slowly and brushed off her dress.

"What's that?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Don't play games with me."

"What's...'play'?"

Rosicheena pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers and exhaled. "It's when you have fun. When you do things that make you feel happy. Children like you do it, and adults like me do so less frequently."

"Children like me?" Will was exceedingly confused. "And adults...like you? So you're an adult? Are all adults queens?"

She laughed softly—her voice really had a wonderful timbre to it. "No, don't be foolish, young one. My planet only has one queen, who must be an adult female like me." Then, as if she knew what Will was wondering, she added, "Females and males are the two genders that make up a race, which in turn can be made up of billions and billions of people. You are either female or male, a girl or a boy. I am a female, and you, Willford, are a male."

"Oh." It made little sense, to have two genders. It just made everyone different. Up until that moment, Will had thought that he Fi, Ghirahim, and his old master were the only things in existence with sentience. Now this Rosicheena was saying that there were billions of others that lived and breathed as she did, perhaps more.

"How are you not confused?" Will found himself asking. The question was out before he could help it.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't look like you. How are you not confused by something that is so...different?"

Rosicheena looked about to laugh, but she stopped before she could let it out and said quietly. "I am used to different things. My children were quite unique."

"You have children? Do all adults have children?"

The look in her eyes revealed otherwise as she said, "Only a lucky few."

"So you are one of the lucky few?... For someone so lucky, you look really lost. Are you lost?"

"…I am, aren't I?" For the first time, she seemed to realize that she was in this place, and that she had no idea where here was, and that she was talking to a green and white and purple boy.

"Did you lose something?"

"Yes," she replied softly, voice cracking. "Two someones. I lost my sons."

"Sons? What's that? Is it a thing?"

"No!" she snapped, and Will shied away at the gesture of anger. She sighed and turned away, sinking to the ground and slowly sitting. Then she motioned for him to sit next to down to her. Brimming with curiosity, he waited a moment, flew down next to her, and sat with his hands drawing his knees to his chest. After an instant, she spoke.

"My sons are my children. Two boys. Two princes. One of them almost five, one of them barely three. I was protecting the older one, my planet's crown prince, when I was attacked by an assassin."

"Assassin?" he echoed, fearful. There was a sinister echo to the word.

"Hired killer. She called herself Impara, a demon woman."

"...Killer?"

Rosicheena sighed to herself firmly, then turned and placed her hands on Will's shoulders. The gesture of closeness was shocking to him—he had been alone, without this feeling, for so long. _How have I lived without this?_ She looked directly into his eyes and spoke.

"When someone kills another, they steal the life that another person has." She placed a hand on his heart and continued, "When your heart stops, something has killed you, be it natural causes or another's grasp for your power and strength. People kill for power. It makes killers feel strong, when in truth they're the weakest of all."

Then she leaned back and surveyed the emptiness around them. Again she laid a hand on her stomach. "This killer, Impara. She was able to kill me. And...well, that makes me dead."

The finality with which Rosicheena spoke made Will tremble.

_"…Dead?"_ He knew that word, and it chilled his soul inside, through and through. "Then why are you here? Shouldn't you be in the place where good dead people go?"

Rosicheena looked around for a moment, smiled at Will, and then said, "I think I'm already there, or at least on my way. I think this is a waiting place."

"A what?"

"Where people wait after their deaths, to go to heaven. It's the doorway to the afterlife. I've heard about it in legends from other worlds, but I never thought it to be true."

"It is?"

"Yes," she said with a chuckle. "And that makes you"—she poked his nose playfully with a finger—"the guardian. You should protect anyone you see here, and make them feel welcome. Can you do that?"

"I…" Could he do it? Yes, he could. He wanted to be good to others, or to at least see others. "I can. I will."

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me," she said as she got to her feet, "I must go."

Will immediately leapt into the air to protest, but she shushed him before he could say a word.

"Don't be afraid. I'm sure others will find you, if I'm right about this place. I need you to do something for me." Rosicheena took a deep, shaky breath, then said, "If you ever see my sons, any number of years from now, tell them that I made it to the other side and I am waiting for them."

"I'll do whatever you say, just please don't leave me," he begged quietly.

"Everyone leaves eventually." She reached out and ruffled his hair slowly, smiling lightly to him. "Willford, I asked you do something for me. As a queen, I ask you to please carry out my wishes. Perhaps someday we'll meet again, young one."

And then, with no goodbye, she was suddenly…gone.

From that day on, Will did what she asked. Every time he met with someone new, he learned as much as he could about the world outside his, and made them feel welcome for the short while they were there. Once Rosicheena had charged him with his duty and disappeared, another person had come, this one an older man from a place called Italy. He said that he had died in a freak hailstorm, which was how Will came to be known as Willford Grandine. The man had disappeared after a while, just like Rosicheena, and leaving Will with the same empty feeling.

Then more people came to see him. More from other places, other countries, other worlds. Teachers, parents, children, students, workers, everyone. Thousands had flocked to him, one by one. He'd barely finish talking to someone before he found another. He had no reprieve, and to be honest he didn't want any. He loved being surrounded by people that he could learn from, talk to, make happy.

By the time he had seen somewhere around three trillion people, he had come to see himself as the guardian of death. He even found a pattern to it. People died in waves, a lot, then a little, and so forth—a short period of visitors usually meant that a larger group was on its way. The smaller the first group, the larger the second.

So when the waiting place was, for the first time in thirty years, completely and utterly silent for five minutes, Will immediately knew that something was horribly, horribly wrong.

_..._

* * *

_..._

_Kyrior Ambala's room, Councilmen Quarters of Hyrule Castle_

_Ten minutes after the Aeforce_

_..._

**The** letter from his girlfriend began something like this.

_..._

_Kyrior,_

_Long time no see, huh, oh mighty Gerudo King? You know, I get bored without you around. You should have sent Geror or Kota or some other advisor to be a HyCoR rep, instead of taking charge yourself. That way, I could be with you a little more. Besides, I hear everyone hates you for ruining everything between the Zora and Rito. Chill out, Kyrior, and stop making everyone miserable. For me, please? *cue the doe eyes of a thief about to snatch a billionaire's wallet*_

_Sorry in advance. I'm cancelling my trip this week to Hyrule Castle—now, before you kill me, listen. Something's come up, something I wasn't expecting. I'm heading into Faron Woods for a while in three days, don't know for how long, and I was kind of hoping you could meet me here before then. If you don't see me before then, it might be a while before I see my dear, "sweet" hero again. _

_I'm not feeling so good these days. Something's up, I know it. Don't worry about me. I'll be waiting where I'm always waiting._

_Nabooru_

_..._

Don't worry about her, she said? That was the one line that made him worry.

Trying to mask his discomfort from the young guard who was standing at his desk with a worried frown, he let out a small halfhearted chuckle and ripped the sheet of paper in half, throwing the pieces into the fire at the hearth. The parchment roll crinkled up and turned brown with ash, then black as the paper itself melted into the flames.

"Everything okay, sir?" the Gerudo guard asked, leaning against the wall as she stared at him through narrow yellow eyes. She seemed to care a little more about his safety than most Gerudo females, which was why he had promoted her to head of the Gerudo guards.

"Don't pry, Kota," he snapped, his gaze fixed on the fire.

He didn't expect her to listen. And she didn't. But the Gerudos trusted her enough for Kyrior not to care when she butted in. "Letters from Nabooru are hard to come by, sir."

"Hmm."

"…I'll leave you be with your…'ashes of affection', then," Kota muttered with a knowing look, and walked out of the room to guard her King from the hallway. This left him alone to think.

Kyrior hadn't gotten a letter from Nabooru before—Nabooru didn't trust media that much, and preferred personal conversations. So the letter was a strange surprise from her, although it was nice to get the warning that their reunion would be delayed. Kyrior, he didn't care about much in life, that was fairly clear to every Hylian—but the Sage of Spirit, Nabooru, was the one person he respected in this world. Perhaps, more than respect was involved in their relationship. In public, everybody saw Kyrior as a flirt and playboy, but not one person would ever dare doubt the caring those two shared behind the scenes.

_Something's come up. _He couldn't shake the odd feeling that the something in question was bigger than what she had made it out to be. _What did she mean, she's not feelin' well? Is she sick, or is her sagely power acting up again? …I hope everythin's okay with her. Maybe I should go today?_

But after a tense moment of staring at the hearth, Kyrior shrugged and decided that he needed to stop worrying about her and calm down. He'd meet her in a day, meaning he'd leave that night.

And, despite the fact that he was not widely known for his religious belief, he sincerely prayed to Hylia that nothing was wrong.

_..._

* * *

_..._

_In the Otherworld_

_Zero minutes after the Aeforce_

_..._

**Deep** in the depths of Hell, a portal popped open, nearly scaring the life (or death, in this particular little case of ours) out of Frieza.

"What the—?" Frieza jumped back, almost tripping over King Cold. He spun around, a nervous and guilty look on his face as he feared the imminent wrath of his father. "Sorry, Father," he stammered. "I was just sitting there and that thing just popped up out of nowhere and I didn't mean to and—"

Frieza was stopped by a solid fist in the gut from Perfect Cell, who had been listening to Frieza's rapid rant. "You talk too much, Frieza. You should be focusing on figuring out what that thing is. Personally, I think it's a portal of some kind."

Frieza stopped wheezing and rested against the wall, facing the ominous tear in the fabric of existence. "A portal?" he gasped. "Why would a portal out of Hell open here? It's literally the most secure prison in existence!"

"Plotline?" Cell suggested with a shrug.

"Probably."

"Why didn't you tell me you saw a portal out of here, son?" King Cold looked at his son with an icy glare.

Frieza returned his father's glare, a look of pity replacing his look of evident pain. "Father, Father, Father. I tried, but Cell stopped me before I could." Frieza pointed accusingly at Cell, who was sitting on an outcropping of rock, idly inspecting his fingernails and trying not to be interested. "Maybe he knows my plan and just doesn't want me to take credit for it."

As Frieza said that, Cell closed both eyes and moaned while King Cold squinted. "Will the idiocy never cease!? Jesus, Frieza, you're paranoid as hell. I didn't want to take credit for a plan that's undoubtedly obvious. I just wanted to punch you!"

"Tell us your plan, son," King Cold said. "We're all dying to hear it, which is barely possible since we're already dead."

Cell crossed his arms and smiled heinously. "I want to know what you've figured out in that purple-plated head of yours." When Frieza self-consciously put a hand to his head, Cell laughed loudly. "Oh, come on. Obviously you can't take a joke."

Frieza regained his composure and pointed to the portal. "I bet," he declared, "that if we go through that portal, it will lead us to another place, a place NOT in the world of death. Not in Hell, nor in the Otherworld, which is a less-likely possibility. The world of the living."

Nobody moved for a second. Then Cell began to slowly and mockingly clap. King Cold burst out in a maniacal laugh that pierced the barriers of Hell and reverberated throughout the Otherworld.

"Oh, my, and nobody else has EVER thought of that!" King Cold spoke his mind through barely-concealed laughter. His tone quickly changed as he whirled around and slapped his son across the face, sending him flying into the prison chamber's wall headfirst. "You fool! A plan is supposed to be innovative, not common knowledge!"

Cell stopped clapping and stood up, yawning for a good ten seconds before speaking. "I say we go through the portal and hope that we don't end up on the surface, or anywhere on Earth for that matter."

"Agreed," King Cold proclaimed. He walked briskly to his son and grabbed his leg. With one flick of his wrist, Frieza was extracted from the wall and dumped on the ground, rubbing his neck and groaning.

"I'll get Cell for that." Frieza stood and caressed his purple head indignantly. "Well, if you guys aren't going to go, I will." With that, Frieza jumped in the air and flew straight for the portal, the speed at which he accelerated creating a shockwave.

Cell and King Cold looked at each other with a roll of their eyes, unsurprised by Frieza's willingness to get the hell out of, well, Hell. They all did—Frieza just sucked at masking it.

"So," Cell said, idly whistling between words, "You think this is gonna blow up in our faces?"

It took a few seconds for King Cold to answer, but in the end he replied, "Probably. But maybe not."

"That's a big maybe."

"Do I look like I care?"

After contemplating a moment, Cell shook his head. "Not really. It might be interesting to watch it blow up in Frieza's face, though."

King Cold grinned. "Let's make sure we're there to see that."

"After you, your Highness."

So the two of the walked through the Aeforce into a new world.

...

* * *

**Second chapter! WOOOOOOOOO! Thank you, people who have read this story and liked it! I plan to post on Fridays or Saturdays, due to the annoying ****homeworks...UGH AP. Again, if it's not constant, feel free to complain when things get up and running. Me likey reviews, me likey readers, me likey everything!**

**OC's... Willford Grandine, OBVIOUSLY. I won't spoil whose sword spirit he is, but i'm sure you'll figure it out. Queen Rosicheena, as well. Her, I'm not gonna say where she's the queen, only that she has familial ties to one of our DBZ heroes. Kota is a new one, but she's not very recurring at all. ****The Aeforce is an original concept of mine-basically just a fancy name for the portal that was created by Dende. Its creation serves as a time reference for the rest of the story.**

**Well, that's all. JTS out!**


	3. The Flyswatter in the Bug's Hands

**Heyo! The story is back! Another week of on-time posting, I'm so proud of myself. *pats self on back* Again, if you like it, read, follow, review, whichever you think suits this!**

**This week is finally when the Z Fighters and Hylians meet! I'm planning to add as much comedy as I can without diminishing the story, so things will get...weird at times. I did my best to portray characters as accurately as possible judging from what i've seen in Zelda games, and i think it turned out ok. Let me know what you think!**

* * *

**DISCLAIMER: I, JTS, do not own Dragon Ball Z or the Legend of Zelda. However, I did come up with a few OC's and spells myself, which I'll point out at the end of each chapter so there's no confusion.**

**WARNING: Every section following this sentence contains SPOILERSSSSSSS for both series! Read at your own risk!**

* * *

The Flyswatter in the Bug's Hands…

…

* * *

_In the center of Hyrule Castle Town_

_Ten minutes after the Aeforce_

_…_

**Piccolo** stared in bewilderment as he and Trunks emerged from the Aeforce at Kami's Lookout into a bizarre new world. It looked like they had stepped into a medieval city, with the afternoon light of a blazing sun sending rough shadows across the walkways. Buildings were made from light grey cobblestone walls and thatched roofs, with small gardens or clotheslines outside. And the people—old and young, girl and boy, human or…other—bustled throughout the streets, entering shops and traveling in groups. On occasion, bright colors dotted the small, dull stalls and outfits of most of the citizens, who roamed around with some sort of unknown purpose to everything they did.

As soon as he came through the Aeforce, he winced as the full volume of the bustling city hit him head-on. It was _loud. Very_ loud. Piccolo's big ears weren't accustomed to such noise, such clamor. Musicians singing slow ballads with small instruments in hand, families gossiping as they scampered in and out of shopping corners. And he barely understood any of it—a lot of what he heard sounded like gibberish in some ancient language, although thankfully he could discern a few people that spoke decent English and quite a few more who spoke fluent Japanese.

Piccolo continued to stare as Gohan emerged from the portal, which closed behind him soundlessly. "Oh hey, Piccolo. What's it li…oh…" The words faded as he realized just what they had stepped into, and began to gape at every passing person as if they were ghosts. "Cool! Oh my god, this is awesome!"

"It's unbelievable," Trunks gasped, as excited as a schoolboy on a field trip. "An entire hidden civilization, right under our noses! We could have walked through it without knowing!"

"Yeah," Krillin agreed. "Who knew?"

"Chiaotzu," Tien said softly but sternly, "be careful and stay close to me." With a nod, Chiaotzu stopped levitating and slowly sank to the ground, a dumb expression on his face.

While the Z Fighters were gawking, a girl about Gohan's age in a pink dress came walking by the group. Piccolo thought the girl might have looked a bit crazy, what with the butterflies all over her dress and the disconcertingly chipper smile on her face. And not to mention a parasol when it wasn't raining, nor sunny enough to warrant one. With all the bright colors on her outfit and the bright glitter decorating the headband in her hair, she looked fairly out of place in the bustling community, but didn't seem to care at all.

When the girl saw the group, she spun on her heels and walked towards them. She pranced right up to Dende and leaned down. "My, my," the girl said, in almost perfect English. "You're a cute little Zora, aren't you?" Dende yelped as the girl leaned closer and he ran behind Piccolo, but peeked out because the girl sparked his curiosity.

She put her hands on her hips in a huff, her parasol dangling by her side. "What, you've never seen a teen before?"

"Not a girl one," he admitted.

Piccolo looked at the girl with disdain. "Don't you recognize your Guardian when you see him?"

"What's that?" She put her hand on her chin, glancing at Dende out of the corner of her eyes with a slightly sardonic look. "My…guardian, a Zora? No, definitely not. Now that I think about it, I guess Princess Zelda's our guardian. That is, in a way. She protects us. A lot, from everything, especially Terminan fairies... Are you okay?" She looked back to Piccolo, who was clearly (if possible) more confused than before.

_Zora? What's a Zora? And who's this…Princess Zelda? A female Guardian? But how? And I'm not even going to comment on the fairies part._ These questions would have gone on and on in Piccolo's head, had Gohan not interfered.

Gohan stepped forward and tugged on Piccolo's cape. "Uh, Piccolo? Are you okay?"

"Fine, fine," he said dismissively.

The young girl turned to Gohan. "Oh! You're a strong one, aren't you," she said as she poked Gohan's shoulder. "You remind me of the Ordon boy that used to bring me my bugs. What's your name?"

"Uh, Gohan," the young Saiyan said, blushing.

The girl drew back to a more polite distance and thrust out her free hand. "I'm Agitha. I used to be the Bug Princess, but that got me too many weird looks, so it's just Agitha now." Gohan took it, and the two teens shook hands.

"Hold it, guys." Tien stood, confused by all that was happening and the bustling city. "Where the hell is Vegeta?" Shock registered on everyone's faces as they realized what Tien had just said.

"Damn." Piccolo slapped his forehead, feeling like a complete idiot for ignoring that problem. "As if the missing Dragonball wasn't enough. Now there's a violent, sociopathic Super Saiyan on the loose in a medieval country."

Agitha looked at the group like they were talking nonsense, which—to be fair—was a perfectly normal response to a group of strangers that had simply appeared in the center of a city that appeared to be part of an alternate universe. Her eyes narrowed as she sucked in a breath through her teeth. "Medieval? That's cold… You're obviously not Hylians, but you're not Terminans either… Have you guys ever even been to the castle before?"

Dende jumped out from behind Piccolo and gasped. "You mean there's a real castle here?"

"Hah! I'll take that as a no. Well," she said, pointing to a huge tower nearby, "Welcome to Hyrule Castle Town!" The gang oohed and aahed as they saw exactly what she was pointing to. The huge tower was actually the tallest turret of a ginormous castle made with white stones and blue roof tiles, and the "city" was actually a very large town that surrounded the entrance to the castle.

Gohan stared in amazement as hard as he could, trying and failing to see the top. "It's incredible! It's almost as tall as Korin's Tower!"

"What's Korin's Tower?"

Piccolo, oblivious to the girl's questions, asked his own. "So what's this Hyrule place, again?"

The girl looked at him with raised eyebrows. "You're kidding, right? What, did you grow up under a rock?" When she realized that not a single one of them was kidding, she relented. "All right, I'll play along. Hyrule is the land where you are now. There's six provinces: Ordona, Faron, Eldin, Lanayru, Gerudo and Peak. Lanayru Province is home to Hyrule Castle, the place where Princess Zelda lives. She's the keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom, you see. That's why she's such a good ruler. And she—"

Krillin interrupted her mid-sentence. "Sorry, Agitha, but I need to tell them something." He turned to the gang with a slight frown, lowering his voice so she couldn't hear them. "While you guys have been talking, I've been useful for once, and have been trying to track Vegeta's Ki. Although, it's kinda hard to sense power levels here, since there's so many that rival Vegeta's, but I can sense someone coming in at flight speed, so it's probably him—"

At this, Chiaotzu interrupted. "Wait. Powers rivaling _Vegeta's_? How is that possible?"

Eyes wide, Krillin shrugged. "I don't know. They all seem to be dormant though. Like the people have the powers, but not the ability to use them. Inlaid Ki abilities, or something like it." He turned to Trunks, no longer playful. "Whatever. We're still on a mission here, as awesome as it looks. Trunks, do you have the Dragon Radar?"

Trunks nodded fervently. With one fluid movement, he pulled it out and studied the screen. Agitha, a very curious girl at heart, walked up to Trunks and stood on her tippy-toes to see the machine. When she did, she screamed and stumbled backwards, knocking Gohan over as she toppled onto him.

"What in… Holy Hylia!" Agitha whimpered in fear. "How do the dots move?" She scampered to her feet. "You must have amazing powers," she whispered. "How else would that…that thing work?"

"Please," Gohan mumbled, muffled, "it would be nice if you stopped sitting on my face!"

The Z Fighters all looked guiltily at one another, all thinking the same thing; _Prime directive breach._ "It seemed that this Hyrule place has no idea what electricity is," Piccolo grumbled. Great. Just what they needed: to look like freaks from another world. Which, of course, they were.

"Electricity? Like, lightning?" Agitha cocked her head and stood, looking at the tallest tower of Hyrule Castle. A gasp came from Gohan as his lungs suddenly found air, and he doubled over, breathing heavily.

_Saiyans can be suffocated by eleven-year-olds. Better make a note of that one, _Tien thought with a sigh.

"Sort of," Trunks replied, enjoying this newfound chance to show off his intelligence. "Artificially created power by means of a power source. Like a waterwheel spinning to power a wheat-grinder. Our specific form of energy is electricity, which is, in effect, like lightning." He opened the back of the Dragon Radar to show her the gears and wires inside. "The power electricity supplies allows for computers to function, among other things."

"C-cool," she breathed, the flashing lights of a miniscule motherboard reflected in her eyes.

"On another subject," Piccolo interjected, snapping the girl out of her daze. "Would you mind telling us how to navigate this place? We're looking for something important, and if you could help us find a way to figure out exactly where we are, we can start searching."

Then she straightened up and gained a little bit of decorum, pointing at herself. "Me? Oh, no no no, you've got the wrong girl. I'm horrible with important things… But now that I think about it, I know someone who isn't a complete failure. Her name's Telma, she's a bartender on the outskirts of town. Do you want me to take you and your Zora friends to Telma?" Agitha asked Gohan.

Gohan held up a finger for her to wait as he caught his breath, earning a disapproving look from Piccolo.

But just as Gohan was about to say 'yes', Krillin jumped up and cut him off. "Gohan," Krillin said, "our psycho Saiyan prince is on the move, coming in from the castle's direction."

Tien pointed at Agitha indiscreetly, who—due to the initial shock of seeing the Radar work with electricity—was still shuddering like a breeze had blown through her. She must have felt his energy nearing too, although clearly she didn't know that she was sensing.

"Guys, I don't want to interrupt," she asked, "but who is this Vegeta person?"

Little did she know that the answer to her question was, quite literally, flying right above her head.

"That's a good question, girl!" Vegeta exclaimed melodramatically, loudly enough to get unwanted attention.

Everyone in the square stopped bustling about and stared in awe as Vegeta flew down and landed right in front of Agitha. "A lot of people have asked that question and learned the hard way. '_That Vegeta person'_, as you so eloquently put it, is me."

_Fantastic, _Piccolo moaned inwardly._ He's running his mouth again._

Agitha whimpered and ran to Gohan, jumping behind him and dropping her parasol. "Gohan," she said fearfully, "WHAT _IS_ IT?!"

In Gohan's opinion, Vegeta pulled off a convincing mask of insult. "What do you mean, 'it'? You've hurt my feelings, which is hard to do to a Saiyan like myself." He held out his palm and a marble-sized sphere of yellow light came into being. "You're going to pay, brat!"

With an angry shout, Vegeta threw the energy sphere at Agitha, but at the last second Gohan jumped up and swatted the blast out of the air. The townspeople stared in horror as it came in contact with a huge, white marble fountain. With a crack, the whole fountain exploded in chunks of marble, spraying mist all over the square and drenching everyone within ten meters of the square.

"Enough, Vegeta!" Gohan snarled, oblivious to the fact that he was soaking wet. With a yell, he powered up to Super Saiyan, instantly vaporizing any water near him. "These people are innocent, just living their lives. And you're going to kill one if she 'hurt your feelings'? That sounds to me like you're just bored. Well, excuse me, but you can't kill people for entertainment!"

Vegeta came as close as he dared to the demi-saiyan, which was pretty darn close. "Shut it. I don't have to listen to you when your failure of a father isn't around. I came here for entertainment; and if serial murder is the way to bring a smile to my face, then serial murder is what I shall do!"

Thus said, Vegeta turned to Trunks, who legitimately looked like he wanted to run off and commit suicide. "Trunks, have you found the Dragonball?" He eyed his son suspiciously.

Trunks swallowed and then spoke. "To be honest, I don't know, Dad—"

"_DAD?!" _Agitha shrieked, ranting off into some other language that none of them could understand.

He coughed once to hide his embarrassed blush and then continued. "It's extremely hard to locate here for some reason. I'm guessing that it's in that direction." He pointed towards the tall castle, praying that his dad wouldn't throw a tantrum.

Instead, Vegeta turned towards the castle with a look of disinterest. "That place? Don't play games, Trunks. I already checked it. Nothing but pathetic traps and ten-foot walking tin cans. It was easy to scout out the whole entire palace in ten minutes. Turns out there's only one remotely powerful person in there at the moment. Some dark-haired girl in a long dress or something? I tried following her, but there wasn't much there that would interest the likes of you." He chuckled to himself.

For some reason, that comment made the young girl snap. "You're horrible!" Agitha yelled as she raced towards Vegeta and slapped him across the face. The sheer unexpectedness of the attack actually caused Vegeta to step back, not the strength of it—which was a minute irritation at best.

"How dare you disrespect our Princess Zelda! She's not just a girl. She's got more power than a Goron rolling full-speed." She stood, no longer scared but very angry, as Vegeta slowly turned to face her.

"You Hylians are _amazing_," Gohan breathed.

For a moment, the Prince of All Saiyans' eyes were wide from surprise, but they quickly narrowed down in anger. "Damn girl!" Vegeta raged. "You've got some nerve, to hit me like that! Imagine, Prince Vegeta, the leader of the Saiyan race, slapped in the face by an 11-year old." He straightened up and chuckled, still seething. "Now I know the girl's name. Princess Zelda. Almost sounds like a Saiyan name. I'll respect that. Hmmm… Maybe next time I won't demolish half her palace."

"You _what?!"_

He blinked for a moment and then grinned. "Oh, it's a pigsty 'cause of me. Broken things everywhere, to the point where I'm sure that the garden caretaker will be pretty upset. And if you think the courtyard's in tatters, you should see what happened to those rusty suits of armor I saw on the way in…" He put a hand to his chin. "Or were those people? I don't remember. They were trying to fight me—it didn't really work out so well."

Agitha held her ground, throwing down her parasol and wringing out her hair as she spoke. The colorful makeup around her eyes had come off during the Vegeta-induced deluge, and her hair had come out of the ponytail it had been in before. Now it hung down around her face, in a way that Gohan suddenly found quite cute.

"By the Golden Goddesses. Well, from what I can tell, you're one of two things," she declared, shifting the headband on her blonde head back to its proper position. "Either you're a self-absorbed monstrous idiot, or you're just a complete sociopathic alien with a god complex." Agitha put her hands on her hips. "Take your pick."

"Second one," Gohan deadpanned.

"Unfortunately," Vegeta sneered, purposely ignoring Gohan's remark, "I am neither. I'm a Super Saiyan who eats people like you for breakfast."

"Well, if you're so strong, explain why I hit you."

"How about you explain why you're still alive!"

"Maybe you're not as powerful and invincible as you thought!"

"Would you like me to verify my strength by punching you in the face?"

"Agitha, you're gonna get yourself _killed," _Gohan prompted.

She chose to ignore him and instead baited the prince further. "I doubt you're strong enough to do it!"

"Watch me!" He roared and punched out at her, but at the last second Gohan jumped into the path of the blow and blocked it on his arms.

"Thanks!" Agitha whispered conspiratorially.

"I… What?" the demi-Saiyan replied.

Vegeta laughed out loud and jumped back. "See? You can't even defend yourself! You need a fatherless juvenile half-breed brat to take the punches for you so you don't sully your dress!"

"Maybe," she replied, as she pushed Gohan out of the way and stood once more. "But he was able to block it, wasn't he? And if he was, that makes him stronger than you...doesn't it? Wouldn't that mean you'd need to be…stronger than you are now in order to hit me?" Her eyelashes fluttered, the epitome of false innocence at its finest.

All the color drained from Vegeta's face as he realized exactly what she had set up, and he leapt back away from her as if she bore a cloud of toxic poison. "D-don't fool yourself, girl! He can never, and will never, be my equal!"

"That so?"

"Absolutely!"

Piccolo watched in what could only be described as horror as the verbal attacks flew through the air. Agitha was somehow holding her own against the Saiyan prince in a battle of insults, which even Vegeta's own wife could barely do at times. After about three straight minutes of rude, coarse and offensive language—Dende chose to cover his ears about halfway through—the Z Fighters watched in complete bewilderment as Vegeta finally backed down.

"I hate you, girl," he hissed, a lame ending to a one-sided battle. "You know that?"

"Well then, now we're even." In one swift movement, Agitha picked up and opened her parasol, hitting Vegeta over the head with it in the process. Satisfied, she flounced back to Gohan, leaving Vegeta on the ground and groaning (more injured pride than anything else, especially not pain).

"Well, Gohan, do you still want to go to Telma's bar? I can still take you guys."

Gohan was too utterly confused at the scenario that had just unfolded before his eyes to respond. "You…you beat…Vegeta…with words… It's impossible…"

"Yeah, well, he's a jerk. For the last two years, I've had extensive experience dealing with them. I'll only take you if he doesn't come." She jerked an angry thumb at Vegeta.

Almost childishly, Vegeta growled and crossed his arms. "I don't _want_ to go with her in any case!"

Agitha smiled snidely at Vegeta, hastily changing her mind. "Well, then, if it'll make you angry, I'll take it back. I'll only do it _if _he comes. How's that for logic?"

"…Well, it doesn't matter, because I wasn't planning on going anyway!"

Gohan looked back to Vegeta pleadingly. "Come on? Maybe this Telma person has some idea of where the Dragonball is. We need to try."

"…Oh, no," he said, glaring icicles at the boy. "Don't you dare get me all mixed up in this, filthy half-breed!"

"Then, I guess I'll just have to tell Dad when he comes back about how I single-handedly found the Dragonball in an alternate universe and you decided to stay on the sidelines…" Gohan glanced up at the prince after idly inspecting his fingernails. "That'll _really_ show him."

Vegeta looked about ready to murder both Agitha and Gohan, but in the end he grudgingly relented. "Curse you both, stupid adolescents. I'll see you both in Hell someday. All right, fine. I'll…_help._" He seemed to choke a little on that last word.

"Glad we got that settled," Agitha said. "Now, let's go!" She led the travelers down a path, trying to ignore the weird looks from the other Hylians in the square. Of course they were apprehensive of the newbies, because whenever strangers arrived in town and chose to go to Telma's bar, you knew that nobody was getting any sleep that night.

No doubt, Hyrule was going to be a mess within 24 hours.

…

* * *

_…_

_Inside the Prison_

_Ten minutes after the Aeforce_

_…_

**"Free! **Finally!"

Frieza laughed to himself as he, King Cold, and Cell exited the portal. They had emerged from the bowels of a perplexingly sprightly Hell into what looked like a serene, vacant paradise. The ground was covered for miles with an inch or so of water, but their feet made no sound against the sloshing reflective liquid. There were no clouds in sight: or maybe there were, it was difficult to say. He couldn't see all too well, since the sky was pure white, same as the walls. Everything seemed to stretch on forever.

"Cell, do you sense any power levels?" King Cold gaped in wonder at the surrounding emptiness. "Maybe we're not the only ones here."

Cell looked around. "I think that there are two—no, three strange powers here." He faltered for a second, then continued. "Three powers, all evil, all slightly stronger than ours."

"Don't be stupid!" Frieza looked at the bug-man. "We're the top three villains in existence. We are supreme. How could they be stronger than any of us?"

"Hey, don't look at me!" Cell raised his hands in a mock surrender position. "All I did was sense the power levels, and I say them as I see them. Look, this isn't one of your chances to go all macho and attempt to pass yourself off as the 'ultimate life form' again. Do this whole act some other time. You really want to prove me wrong? Learn to sense power levels—nobody will expect _that. _I say we go and meet these people." Cell turned to King Cold, now ignoring Frieza, who had a stupefied but livid expression on his face. "You know what they say: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I daresay they count as the latter."

King Cold nodded. "By all means, I agree." He looked to Frieza. "I suggest that you hide your power level, as Cell and I shall do. If these others can sense powers, it would be best to hide it so they don't know that we're coming in case we need to ambush them."

"All right, I will." Frieza wasted no time in lowering his power level to its absolute minimum, which was still very blatantly obvious. "Now, let's go!"

"Hey, King Cold; wanna see something interesting?" Cell whispered as Frieza boldly stormed on.

King Cold indiscreetly raised an eyebrow.

As Frieza charged ahead, Cell smirked and pointed above King Cold's head. Where there should have been a ring of glowing yellow energy, there was nothing.

"Look," he said, amused. "No halo."

…

* * *

…

_On the shores of Lake Hylia_

_Fifteen minutes after the Aeforce_

_…_

**On** the shore of Lanayru Province's serene Lake Hylia, the Hero of Time stumbled.

"Ack! What the hell?"

Now keep in mind that normally, when an ordinary someone stumbles, you don't take any notice, save for maybe asking if they're okay. (Usually, people don't do the last part. Stupid _people_.) But then again, Link of Skyloft was no ordinary someone.

Link was quite a handsome boy for Hylian standards, though most people were too jealous of him to realize it. He had giant blue eyes full of wonder and mischief, and his hair was a dirty blonde color that bordered on golden yellow. He was not exceptionally slim, but he was definitely fit and quite athletic. However, he was nothing like a typical seventeen-year-old; he was caring and kindhearted, with just the right amount of mischief to be neither a suck-up nor a problem. Nobody ever dared cross him—he didn't have to be a genius or talkative or know how to write well to know when to do the right thing at the right time. He was undeniably stubborn and never willing to accept defeat. Link was a protector of Hyrule, and Hyrule liked it that way.

The Chosen Hero status didn't necessarily hurt, either.

Midna and Fi, his two most trusted sidekicks, immediately appeared in front of Link. "Link, what's your problem?" Midna floated up to her best friend, waving her tiny petite hands in front of his face and narrowing her crafty red eyes. "Are you sick in the head or something?" Okay, maybe the etiquette of the little tattooed imp needed some work, but the underlying tone of caring was carried through well enough.

Link quickly straightened up and turned to glare at the little princess of the Twili people, laughing unenthusiastically as he fussed with his long floppy green cap. "It's cool, I'm okay. Don't need to cry me a river over it." When Midna didn't respond with more than a middle finger, he groaned and pulled the Master Sword out of its sheath. "But if you ask me, this thing just got twice as heavy." He frowned as he tried to swing the now-heavier sword.

"Master Link, the only way that it could be possible for the sword to gain weight would be for it to gain more evil essence." The levelheaded sword spirit, Fi, came as close as ever to frowning. It was a disconcerting effect for her—seeing as how she had no emotions to begin with, even the slightest signs of disapproval on her were all it took to disturb Link. "Additionally, due to the fact that I am an intangible spirit, I do not need sustenance, ruling out the probability that you are calling me fat."

"Really?" Midna remarked, smiling an impish fanged smile that only she could pull off. It was a common expression for the little princess. "_I_ think he was calling you fat. It's an honest mistake."

Fi looked directly at the stubborn imp, not fazed in the slightest. "Watch your tongue, Midna. There is a 95% probability that you would now be dead, had Link not saved you, and had you not led him to my alternate form, the True Master Sword. Without my existence, you would be dead, and Hyrule would be in perpetual shadow."

"It already is," Midna responded dryly, not even lowering herself to so much as a smile. "After all, you're here."

"…Hilarious. However, the point I am aspiring to make is this; it is foolish to disrespect the one who has saved you, however indirectly."

Midna jumped up so that her face was inches away from the unrelenting Fi and jeered, hovering just in front of the ghostly specter. "Back off! You think you're so high and mighty because you're the Master Sword's spirit." She pointed her finger at Fi's nose, getting no reaction. "Just because you can cut crap down with your emotionless face doesn't make you perfect." She floated down, getting behind Link and snatching the sword.

"Hey!" Link yelled as he lunged at her. Just as his fingers brushed her arm, she melted away into a mess of shadowy bubbles and rematerialized a foot or so above him. A vein popped in his forehead as he growled, "Oh, so now you wanna play the tall girl?"

"Why not? It's fun to taunt people," she replied with a burbling laugh, tossing the sword between her hands as she floated a little higher. "It's even more fun to taunt a blonde."

That was a snapping point for Link. "NOW IS _NOT_ THE TIME FOR TASTELESS AND INNACURATE BLONDE JOKES!" Not to be dissuaded, he ripped the floppy green cap off of his messy blonde hair and began to swing it wildly at her. "I _hate, hate, hate _when people do that! I mean, seriously, people! It's not like intelligence and IQ depend on your hair color! GROW UP!"

"…Yuh-huh," she deadpanned. "This coming from you."

"Screw you!" Continuing his persistence streak, Link pulled a slingshot out of the Adventure Pouch on his belt and began firing at her, once again missing the mark every time due to her constant movement.

"Excellent choice of a skill display, Midna," Fi said dryly.

"Hey, shut it, robot. While we're all making fun of Link," Midna called down to the top of his head. "Buddy, don't mean to call you out, but you're wearing a skirt!"

"It's a _tunic_," he grumbled, throwing the slingshot at her and missing by meters. Fi silently went to retrieve it as he indignantly placed the cap back on his hair.

"Skirt."

"Tunic."

"Skirt, elf boy."

He mumbled, "I'll show _you _a…" and the rest was unintelligible.

As Link marched off to sulk, Midna kept on playing around with the Master Sword. "Man, this thing _is_ really heavy." She jumped forward and pointed it at Fi. "Let's see what this can do!"

"Fool," Fi said, a twist of sarcasm in her demi-robotic voice. "You cannot kill me with myself."

"Just try me!"

Thankfully, Link had recovered from his injured pride in time to stop Midna from braining her nemesis. "Ladies, please!" Link shoved himself between his two friends, shaking his head and saying, "Geez, can't you two go anywhere without fighting?"

"Would you like me to calculate the odds?" Fi asked.

"No! They're bad; we know that already." Midna unenthusiastically handed the sword back to Link, who was glaring at her as if she were the instigator of the incident. Unwilling to admit to her pivotal role, she scoffed and spun around. "So I guess I can be the better woman here, just for today. Here, take it before it poisons me."

He sighed and turned away from them both, swung the sword around a few more times to readjust to the heavier balance, and then sheathed it. "You two scare the living daylights out of me, I hope you know that."

"That's a given fact."

As soon as the sword was safely out of the imp's hands, Fi sighed. "Finally. She could have hurt me with that." Faster than the human eye could follow, Fi zoomed up to Midna and kicked her in the face with expert (no doubt calculated) precision. Even Link had to wince as the Twili flew back and landed on the ground, massaging the place on her cheek that was all too quickly turning red.

"The sword is solid," the sword spirit offered as an apology as she loomed over Midna. "Whether it is my alternate form or not, the chances of a holy blade destroying me are the same as—forgive my crude example—a wooden stake to the heart would a vampire."

"You idiot!" Midna yelled. "I thought you said that you were intangible!"

"I did." Fi flew down to Midna and offered her a hand. Or more like she offered her an edge of the large fanlike cape that Fi had in place of real arms. "There was a 110% probability that you were being rude, out of line, and incorrigible. However, my course of action was within my right, as—at the exact moment of your incursion—you deserved it."

"Alright, o Divine Calculatrix, I get it." Grudgingly, Midna took Fi's semblance of a hand and got back to her feet.

"At last! You guys are being civil!" At this point, our hero was fairly certain that sparks would have flown, had Fi had emotions and had Midna been tall enough to look Fi in the eyes. Link smiled cautiously and turned towards the deadly duo, glad that the peace had finally been negotiated. "Now, we seem to have forgotten the entire purpose of coming to Lake Hylia."

"So we weren't here for water fights?" Midna asked innocently, the fiery hand-like tentacle that she called her hair twitching excitedly. Her already crafty eyes grew large with exaggerated purity.

"No, we were here to talk to Ralis about the stupid HyCoR problems. The thingie with the delta to the Great Sea, up in the north."

"Real specific," she complimented.

"_And right now_, we are down here, when we should be up there." He pointed a finger at the top of the lake, where all three of them knew that a large cave eventually gave way to the Upper Zora River and then to Zora's Domain, the equivalent of a palace to the fish people. "So, ready?"

"Of course." Midna nodded, instantly warping the trio to the top of Zora's Domain. In a flash of black light, they were gone.

…

* * *

…

_Princess Zelda's Quarters, Hyrule Castle_

_Twenty-five minutes after the Aeforce_

_…_

**Inside** Hyrule Castle, Princess Zelda sat in complete and utter boredom. Her day had been entirely unproductive—although, what with the arrival of that weird person with the weirder magic aura, she could not deny that it had certainly been interesting. She couldn't stop thinking about who the strange man was. She had sensed him going around the castle for a full twenty-six minutes at light speed, which was supposed to impossible. (Apparently not.) She had winced in annoyance and anger every time she had heard an artifact break, or a suit of armor clatter over, or a sound like ripping fabric. Then she heard the yells of her soldiers trying to organize themselves against him, but due to sheer exhaustion she couldn't assist and instead basked in her lividity. And then the intruder had chosen to investigate every room in the palace, as if looking for something, but had stopped short after reaching her personal suite. Maybe he could sense her powers as well as she could and had chosen not to intervene; but no matter, because at least he hadn't bust in through the door.

No, the keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom had just had to go about her own business, faking nonchalance, as the intruder inspected her room through a small crack in the wall for whatever it is he was looking for. He had apparently been dissatisfied, because soon after his spying escapade she felt his powers fade into the distance. She was a big protector of her privacy, and she didn't like that person's attitude one bit. If someone wanted to see her room or find something in an enormous palace filled to the brim with high-class ambassadors and extremely sensitive documents and all other sorts of doodads, they should just _ask. Not _intrude on her personal privacy. _Not_ demolish her entire palace. _Not _knock out about half of her royal guard force. Freaking_. Ask._

Thankfully, Zelda's anger had diminished by now, but that was only because she was blocking it off at the moment. She hadn't even tried to go into the hallway—already the sounds of magical reconstruction and restoration were louder than she wanted. Seeing any of the damage would just make her lose her temper faster. She sighed now as she reminisced on the unproductivity of the morning's Hylian Council of Races meeting, wishing that Link were there. He was a nice, kind boy, yet far more courageous and brave than her. _Well_, she thought, _I guess that the Triforce of Courage helps_. He was an idiot too, but Zelda chose to overlook the nonchalant attitude of his that had come with peace.

Hyrule had been a peaceful land for almost two years now (new world record), thanks to Link and Zelda. The world had been freed of Ganondorf, Zant, Ghirahim and Demise, three of them killed by Link and cast into the prison of the Master Sword. Zant had been slaughtered by the feisty Midna—revenge for turning her into her small, unnatural impish form.

The politics had been good too, despite all the problems in the Hylian Council of Races. The Rito had taken majority control of the Great Sea after it had miraculously reappeared surrounding Hyrule a few months ago, but they had opened it up to all people of the nation. All relationships with the Gorons and Mogmas of Eldin Province had been promptly reestablished. The new Zora leader, young Prince Ralis, had welcomed Hylian friendship, as had Rito Prince Komali. Slowly, the Deku Scrubs had learned to accept the strange travelers that entered Woodfall. Bucha and the other Kikwis had opened Lake Floria to any explorers, despite their natural fear of…well, everything. The LD-301s had come flocking to Castle Town from their secluded part of Lanayru Desert with endless streams of Timeshift Stones. Even Yeto and the traumatized Yeta of Peak Province opened their doors to any human travelers.

"Yeah," Zelda whispered. "Life is looking up."

A knock on the door brought the princess to her senses. "Come in," she called, and hastened to fix her princess posture. She relaxed in her chair as the guest turned out to be Impa. "Oh, it's just you, Impa. Great Hylia, I'm so glad it's you."

Impa was a member of the Sheikah tribe, the devoted guardians of Hyrule's Royal Family. At first, she'd appear to be androgynous, but one look into her eyes or at the large red Sheikah tattoo on her forehead instantly changed your mind. All Sheikah warriors with a tattoo of a bleeding eye on them were female, no matter their first appearances. She had a long, thin ponytail that came out from the side of her head and stretched down to her forearms. She wore her usual; a sleeveless blue top, baggy blue pants, an orange belt with long feathers in it, and white strips of cloth wound up her forearms to her elbows. She was an elite warrior, gifted with magical abilities that had once allowed her to help Zelda in the destruction of Demise. Impa had been a wonderful friend, as well as a guide and bodyguard, to Princess Zelda.

"Your Grace, it's good to see you." Impa made a slight bow that caused her ponytail to swing forward. "How went the HyCoR meeting?"

She groaned and slouched into her chair. "Don't remind me, please. There was a huge fuss between Raegef and Laruto, you know how it is. They were arguing about the Northern Delta again—that makes six months of this fight—and ended up doing nothing besides getting Kyrior involved on Laruto's side. He made the problem worse and scared the LD-301 representative out of his skin, which I had to fix…" She trailed off. "Ugh."

That earned a shrug from Impa. "Well, you're the one who decided the Council was necessary after the Great Fairy war."

"I did? Man, was I _stupid_ back then."

"Sorry to hear it. And sorry—I had to take care of a few urgent communiqués, so I left you alone with those crazy diplomats."

"Hello? _I'm _a crazy diplomat."

"Yep, those dark circles under your eyes are proof."

The two of them chuckled and then stood silently for a moment. Then Zelda remembered something. "Heard anything from Prince Ralis yet about his decision on the delta?"

"As a matter of fact, that's the whole reason I came up here. You know that we sent Link, Midna, and Fi ahead to inform the prince some more on the topic—mainly Fi in this case. Ralis's still speaking with his wife and trying to settle things with Komali, but he still wanted me to tell you that Link, Midna and Fi are at the Domain now, and they all want to see you there." The Sheikah smiled and winked. "Link claims you need a distraction and wanted me to deliver this message especially..."

Zelda smiled and blushed, then tried to hide it by fussing with her hair. Judging from the look on Impa's face, she didn't buy it. "Ah, yes, about that… Tell your messenger to tell them that I'm on my way."

"Of course." Impa let out a long, clear whistle. About two seconds later, an LD-301 came zooming through the window.

Zelda released a long delighted laugh as she recognized the bot. What other Lanayru Desert robot could fly? "Scrapper! It's so good to see you!"

The flying robot buzzed and sparked with electricity, his little propeller doing double-time. "Mistress Zelda! Bzzzrt! My circuits are overloading with joy!" Scrapper spun to face Impa. "Mistress Impa, do you have a message for anyone?" When Impa nodded, Scrapper clapped his automated hands with glee. "Just wonderful, ZRRRPT-FOOSH! To whom, Mistress Impa? Master Gor Coron? Miss Romani? Master Ledd? Maybe Mistress Telma?" Slowly, though, as Impa didn't respond to any of these names, Scrapper's robotic happiness faded and dissolved.

"Surely you don't mean…Master Shortpants?"

"I would be honored, Scrapper, if you'd get this letter to Link immediately." Impa handed a small, neatly sealed envelope to the robot.

As soon as Link was brought up in conversation, the feisty bot sagged and began to complain. "But Mistress Impa, vrrrpt! Why do I have to deliver to him? There's no reason—he doesn't deserve my service! He's just a stupid little teen! A midget orphan boy with a weapon he doesn't deserve, who has no family, and can't even fly!"

All of a sudden, the Sheikah's calm appearance snapped. "Be careful, shrimp. If I said that about your little girlfriend Database or any of _your_ other friends, you'd kill me," she hissed, showing a little of her darker side. "Don't make me treat you the same."

He buzzed worriedly and flew a meter back.

"Yeah, you're right to fly away."

"P-please don't kill me!"

Zelda coughed quietly, both to get Scrapper's attention and to stop Impa from braining him. "Did I mention that both Fi and Midna are with him?"

Scrapper lifted his head and buzzed again. "Well, if both Mistress Fi and Midna are there, then it won't be as bad…" He weighed the envelope in his oversized, ceramic hands. "…But I expect full compensation, drrrzt!" Without another word, the feisty robot flew out the window.

As soon as he was gone, Zelda shook her head. "Holy crap, Impa. You didn't have to scare him."

"Sorry. I hate when he treats Link like that," she admitted with a shrug. "Besides, I've been dying to say that to him."

"…Girlfriend?"

The Sheikah's bad mood had faded surprisingly quickly. "Partner on the Time Rock project. Trying to install Timeshift Stones in the LD-301's mainframes and give them operating power 24/7." Now Impa turned to Zelda with a question. "If I'm remembering things correctly, Scrapper calls everyone either Master or Mistress."

Zelda nodded. "Always."

"Then how come he just calls Midna 'Midna' instead of 'Mistress Midna'?"

The princess tapped her chin with her pointer finger. "Well, Scrapper may love Fi as a crush, but he loves Midna like a sister. They even have the hats." She traced a shape in the air to represent the style of head coverings that both Scrapper and Midna wore.

"That makes a lot of sense, considering it's Scrapper we're talking about."

Zelda cleared her throat. "It really does. Well, I guess I should transform into Sheik and go."

"Yup. Wouldn't want to be mobbed again. Or recognized by the strange person from earlier." Zelda looked at the Sheikah with an eyebrow raised, but Impa just smiled. "Don't worry about that guy, the intruder. His damage is already reversed—it's amazing how fast the Deku Scrub and LD-301's work when I 'intimidate' them a little. Believe me, if he comes back, I'll be waiting to knock his teeth in. See you later, Zelda."

Zelda nodded, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and imagined the form of Sheik replacing her own. When she opened her eyes, her feminine form had been changed into her Sheikah self, wearing a skintight blue and white suit with bandages wrapped around her mouth and now-blonde hair,

"Perfect," he said in his slightly deeper masculine voice. "Well, I'm off. Later, Impa." With a hasty salute, Sheik turned and walked to the window. In one quick motion, he jumped up, placed her hands on the windowsill, and somersaulted out. Sheik landed without a sound and proceeded to run in the direction of Zora's Domain.

...

* * *

**HIIII! So in this chapter, I've established Impa's character-she'll be coming back ALOT, including a coming fight chapter-Link and the helper spirits, Midna and Fi, Agitha, and made it pretty clear that Vegeta's a jerk. That's my checklist on character development! The Prison was depicted as pretty vague, but it comes into play a lot more later. The story with the villains gets explained as we go on.**

**There's no OC's in this chapter (lucky break for Will and Kyrior), so...yeah. Next chapter, on a new note, is a bit more plot advancing, but if you wanna find out, you'll have to read it...**

**That's all for me. JTS is sayin' bye!**


	4. The Internal Soliloquies of a Demon King

**Hello! I'm JTS, reporting to you live from in front of my one computer that _hasn't _crashed. **

**Finally, the story is on its way to being what I've wanted it to be! Hoooraaaaaaay! Some action in Castle Town, more action in Gerudo Valley, and a bit more villainous introductions are in store. Me likey all readers and reviewer(s) (singular, thank you Charlie), and if you have any requests, just ask.**

* * *

**DISCLAIMER: I, JTS, do not own Dragon Ball Z or the Legend of Zelda. However, I did come up with a few OC's and spells myself, which I'll point out at the end of each chapter so there's no confusion.**

**WARNING: Every section following this sentence contains SPOILERSSSSSSS for both series! Read at your own risk!**

* * *

The Internal Soliloquies of a Demon King

...

* * *

_Telma's Bar, Hyrule Castle Town_

_Thirty minutes after the Aeforce_

_..._

**Gohan** followed Agitha soundlessly through the streets, observing Hyrule Castle Town and its inhabitants as he walked. _What weird clothing they wear here,_ Gohan thought. _Definitely medieval, no doubt about it._ The men all wore dull colored tunics, with thick belts and baggy pants. All the women wore dresses in light colors, and some of them carried parasols like Agitha's. Most of the young children and teens wore short-sleeve shirts and knee-length baggy pants.

"It's crazy how many different races there are here," Trunks marveled.

Way to state the obvious! Apart from the Hylian humans, there were so many others that Gohan could see. There were these huge, yellow, living rocks that rolled around the streets by curling into a ball, with bright tattoos carved into their rocky skin and beady black eyes. A few small, wooden people with disproportionately huge heads and tiny bodies walked around, struggling to see what a vendor was selling. A miniature walking plant with leaves on its back was strolling down the street near Dende. When it saw Dende, it screamed, "ZORAAAAA!" and fell on its face, making it look like a bush. Also, there were some mole-like creatures that walked around on their hands, waving their feet in the air and holding picks, shovels and axes. They were talking with the living rocks, arguing and brandishing their digging tools. Small, colorful robots wearing strange headpieces floated inches above the ground, making buzzing sounds as they went into shops and cafes. There were some bird-people too, with wings connected to their arms and little beaks instead of noses.

Gohan directed his attention back to the young girl leading them through the narrow streets, who was quietly directing him and the other through the crowds. _Agitha._ He mulled the word over. _What an interesting name. _And yet, he mused, she had to have been the bravest girl he had ever met. To take on Vegeta in a battle of ego! Even Vegeta's own wife almost never tried that. Almost.

"Er…Gohan?"

He looked up. Agitha was staring at him, which made him feel both uncomfortable and very, _very _uncomfortable. And possibly a little…giddy. "Um…what?"

Before he realized it, he was staring at her in return. She yelped when she noticed, and her cheeks flushed bright pink. "Ack! Don't look at me like that!"

"Like what?"

"Like a guy," she pouted, lowering her voice so as not to be heard by the others.

"But I am a guy."

"Yeah, yeah, but just don't look at me…like…_that_…" She looked away embarrassedly, and Gohan suddenly had the realization that Piccolo was watching the two of them like a hawk. "Not when Daddy Zora's watching."

"Daddy…Zora?" he whispered, his cheeks turning as hot as coals. "What?"

"I heard that," Piccolo mumbled.

"No. No you did not," Krillin deadpanned, effectively pissing off the green man and diverting attention away from Agitha and Gohan.

"I absolutely did! And it's my job to protect Gohan from anything his father would have been against—"

"Fat lot of help that did against Cell," Vegeta spat.

"Am I allowed to second that?" Chiaotzu asked.

"And can I second _that?" _Yamcha said.

"Shut up, you imbeciles!"

As the Z Fighters, minus Agitha and Gohan, grew deeply entrenched in their everyday quarrels, Krillin held up a thumbs-up behind his back.

_Well, that's one way to get rid of Piccolo._

Agitha let out a chuckle as she walked a little further ahead with Gohan, distancing the couple from the others so they could talk like normal people. "Come on! It's not often I meet a person who's not mentally disrupted."

"There are really that few?"

"You have no idea," she said with a giggle. " And there are even less foreigners around here. Hey, let's chat. I have an idea—you ask me a question, and I ask you one, and we both get to learn something new. You okay with that?"

_Wow. She sure is straightforward. _He straightened up and put his hands in his pockets. "…Alright. So…Agitha," Gohan said, after they had walked in silence for a few moments, "how far is it to this bar?"

"That's your question?" She let out a soft giggle. "…Not very, maybe a few hundred meters or so. But the town expanded so much over the past year due to trade that Telma's had to renovate and change the entrance path twice already. As a result, it'll be five to ten minutes to get there instead of thirty seconds."

"Ah. That's too bad."

"Not really. It makes it more interesting to go there. My turn. What's the name of the place you're from, and what's it like?"

_How to describe it?!_ God, so much to say about it. He had to think for a moment, but after thinking he said, "I think I've got a good answer. My parents and I live in a cottage in the mountains of the island country Japan, part of the continent Asia on planet Earth."

Agitha gave him a weird look. "The way you say that makes it seem that you come from another planet. This is Earth, silly."

_Whoops. Glad I caught myself. _"Of course," he said, a sweatdrop sliding down his cheek. "It's just that the place I live in, it's in a different dimension of sorts. We had to create a portal to come here."

"Whoa." Her eyes grew as large as moons. "That's intense. I guess I can believe it, though—so much random crap happens in Hyrule Castle Town, it's not the most extraordinary thing I've heard of. What's this place like? Where you live, I mean."

"To be honest? Awesome. It's really peaceful; at least, it's peaceful when Mom isn't making me study and Dad isn't making me train. Mom wants to make me the smartest kid in the world, so she's really strict and expects me to do nothing but study. Dad, he's fun though. I enjoy the training, it's just very intense."

"Training for what?"

"Ki combat and martial arts to defend my home. You saw what Vegeta and I did at the fountain, right?"

A shudder coursed through her body as she snapped her parasol shut. "That was scary…"

"Hehe, yeah, sorry. That's what Dad's been training me for. By harnessing the inner energy everybody has inside of them, my friends and I are able to fight even the strongest enemies, and we protect Earth. And Dad…he was the best of all…until he sacrificed himself to defeat another villain a few days ago."

"Oh." Agitha was silent for a minute, enough so that Gohan could hear the sounds of Vegeta punching Piccolo in the face clearly and the riot forming behind them. She surprised him when she said bitterly, "Lucky."

"That my dad died?!"

"No! Of course not, Gohan." She opened her parasol and closed it again, repeating the action several times out of stress. "It just sounds…so exciting, to save the world from bad guys. I mean, I've never been important for anything. All I did was trade bugs for trinkets as a pastime, all my life, ever since my parents ditched me in the Castle Town." She stared at the ground, her eyes shimmering with tears.

"Sorry." _Aw, man, did I cause this? Now I feel like a jerk._

Agitha looked at him sadly with a half smile, but after a moment her smile grew and she became the cheerful girl of ten minutes ago and blinked the tears away. "Don't be. I only grew up. I stopped selling trinkets and started working to keep my apartment, and I gave up on the whole Bug Princess thing. I'm a normal teen now, or as normal as I can get."

"Well, I think you're nice anyway," he said, stammering slightly. He couldn't meet her eyes when she spoke, and instead looked up at the dimming sky to see the pale fragments of a crescent moon above.

"Thanks! That's really sweet of you." She looked up and followed his gaze, gasping as she saw the moon. "Wow! It's out early today."

"Even the moon looks the same here," he breathed.

"You mean our moon and your moon in…Jan…Je…Jepa…?"

"Japan." Gohan laughed and said it again. "Japan. Ja. Pan. It's an—"

"Island country," she completed with a giggle. "Sounds fun!"

"You should see the anime conventions!"

"Are they fun?"

"Do you really wanna know?"

"If they're anything like the Picori Festival, then no."

The two of them continued to laugh until the group caught up to them. "We almost there, miss?" Tien asked.

Agitha let out a last dying laugh as she wiped tears from her eyes. "As a matter of fact, we're here."

Without knowing it, Gohan and the others had walked down a small set of stairs leading to a small, cubical tunnel. At the end, there was a small door. Laughter and chattering and a _lot_ of breaking glass sounds came from the other side.

Yamcha stepped back, obviously flashing back to the multiple drinking sprees he had experienced and hated. "How do we know they're not going to throw us out?"

Chiaotzu nodded intensely. "I tried being drunk once. I hallucinated that I blew myself up."

That got a sigh from Tien. "That wasn't a hallucination, and you didn't drink. It actually happened."

"WHAAAAT?"

"Don't worry. You got better."

Agitha coughed into her hand. "…Lovely. Well, anyways, I'd love to head on in now. It gets strange in there once the moon falls completely. Some of the people start having what we like to call 'spice fights' if it gets too late."

"Meaning?" Gohan asked, the joviality of their previous talk quickly fading.

"Two drunks bet all their ownings on a Cinnamon Challenge, two tablespoons. So far?" Agitha grimaced. "No winners. Not one."

If Gohan wasn't scared before, he was definitely scared now. "Are you absolutely sure we'll be okay in there?" Gohan prompted, turning pale.

She laughed quietly and grabbed his hand, dragging him down a small passageway to the door. "Oh, no worries. You guys are with me, and Telma loves me! She won't let a flea touch us. Besides, the legal drinking age in Castle Town is kinda vague, so we won't get thrown out." She turned to Gohan, smiling and blushing as she closed her parasol. "I've been bringing her loads of new customers lately, so anyone I bring as a personal guest has VIP status. We'd better go in."

Quietly, Agitha beckoned the rest of the group over and slowly opened the door. "Hmm. Busy night."

Busy was right.

Gohan didn't really know what to make of it as the uproar of the bar hit him square in the face. After all, he was underage and had never been in a bar before. It was like getting a sledgehammer with nails and a warp drive on the back slammed into his forehead. He tumbled back a step, unable to comprehend how noisy a building the size of a small barn could be. The bar was the size of his house back in the mountains, and with the same comforting feel to it, although the air was laden with the heavy scent of alcohol. The walls were made of dark grayish-brown wood, weathered with age, and the floors were made with the same type of wood. A bar counter was made of fine, polished mahogany, with matching high stools going around the outside. Drinks and bright lanterns covered the shelves behind the counter, along with books and jugs of spices. Every available seat was taken up by someone, who ranged from the tiny wood people from before to the giant living rocks, from little green-haired children younger than Gohan to grown men in metal suits of gray and red armor. The majority of them had a glass of assorted alcohol in at least one hand.

Behind the counter, filling two wooden mugs at once with a bottle of wine was a woman. She was slightly heavyset, with deep red hair that she had styled into dreadlocks and tied into a ponytail.

"Telma!" Agitha turned towards the woman. "It's me, Agitha!"

"Agitha, babe," a young man with a bottle in his hands hiccupped, "welcome back to your favorite place in the world…Zzzzzz…"

"Shut it, scumball," she said with a roll of her eyes.

The man bowed to her wishes by promptly falling asleep on the floor.

"Watch out for people like that," she warned Gohan, who nodded with a flustered half-smile.

The lady slid the mugs down the counter, where a few loyal patrons attempted to catch them (only a portion succeeded), and then turned her attention to Agitha as she began drying a champagne glass. "Oh, Agitha, hon, it's good to see you… Why are you soaking wet?"

"Oh, the fountain exploded thanks to the guy in the back," she said with a laugh, indicating a sullen Vegeta who might as well have had a raincloud over his head. "Can I borrow a towel or ten?"

"I've only got one clean bar towel right now, lass, but that should be enough for the moment. There's more in the back, but seein' as this bar is so popular it'll be a real pain getting to 'em." The lady, Telma, tossed a towel to Agitha, who grabbed it from the air and began promptly wringing out her soaking hair. Then she looked behind Agitha and saw the Z Fighters. "And I see you brought some…company."

All around the bar, stares turned towards the newcomers to the bar. Whispers quickly spread throughout the customers, turning into confused shouts and arguments.

"Zoras?"

"Of course not!—they're green, they must be Kokiris."

"But Kokiris are children…"

"Really?"

"I would know! I'm a Kokiri!"

"Yeah, right, Navi!"

"Heh. Purple hair…"

"They're so weird-looking!"

"I'm so drunk I could kiss the bald one."

"You too? Eyyyyy."

"Fire at Will!"

"Why at me?!"

"Sir, put. The bow. Down."

"Make me!"

"…Hey, watch the bow! Watch it, watch it watchitwatchitOW!"

"Marry me, Saria!"

"Not now, Cremia!

"I thought this was a *_hic*_ discriminatory bar! Who let the Terminans in?"

"Who let 'em into the country, forget the bar?"

"Eh, why're you still sober? Ya haven't had enough yet! Have a drink, honeypie—"

"This is my seventh, lightweight. Hey, Telma! I'll throw in a good word with my King if we get another round, on the house!"

Finally, after a hearty facepalm and the appearance of several tick marks on her forehead, Telma lost it. She slammed the glass in her hands down on the counter, shattering it. "All right, that's enough, you freeloading drunkards! EVERYBODY OUT! AND LEAVE YOUR FEES ON THE TABLE, UNLESS YOU DON'T NEVER WANNA SEE DAYLIGHT AGAIN!"

The whole bar wasted no time in clearing out—as soon as she spoke, ten half-sober civilized people and forty all-out drunks crammed the doors to escape Telma's wrath. Once the bar was empty, Telma turned to see the group, eying Piccolo and Dende like they were aliens. Which, of course, they were.

"Sorry. The game censored this place big time. Agitha, hon," she chuckled tensely, "You have some explainin' to do."

"A lot," she agreed.

"All of youse, go ahead and rest up a bit while Agitha and I chat. You look a bit hungry, though—I'll make some food for you, decent food."

Over the next few hours, Agitha filled the woman in on everything fantabulous that had happened in the square, all the way down to the arrival in the bar. She was assisted in the Z Fighters' more calculation-based side of the tale by Gohan, who surprisingly had a knack for weaving his explanations together with hers. The two of them explained the Dragonball situation in exquisite detail to the barmaid as she heated up a few meals for the newcomers, Gohan filling in all the blank spaces in Agitha's story. As for said newcomers, well, they either fell asleep for short periods of time or went into the back room of the bar to wash off. Vegeta, surprisingly, refused any food he was offered, which was normally a sign of lunacy for any sane Saiyan. (So…but Vegeta's not really sane…so…) Point is, by the end of the night, most of the group felt refreshed and ready for whatever might come in their search.

"…I see." A fitting response, given that Telma had been listening to two teens talk fairly advanced stuff for somewhere around four hours, and the sun was already beginning to rise. After a moment of reflection, Telma looked Vegeta up and down before announcing, "Yep. Definitely missing a few blades on the knife block, that one is."

Vegeta cast an agitated look at Gohan and Trunks; he hadn't moved the entire time they had been there, possibly sleeping. "It's incredible, really. All the women hate on me, and my fellow Saiyans stand there, letting me suffer."

"Half-Saiyans," they both replied.

He facepalmed. "I am forever reminded of that fact."

This made Telma frown. "Honestly, Vegetable, I—"

"IT'S _VEGETA_!"

"Sorry. Well, _Vegeta_, if you weren't being so disrespectful, Agitha wouldn't have had to be so frank with you. You wouldn't have been in this pickle in the first place."

Vegeta threw his hands up in the air. "I give up! All these women are going to hurt me more than that time when I popped in on Frieza in the shower."

Dende sighed. "Genders. I just don't get it."

"What don't you get about them?" Agitha asked with an innocent smile on her face, causing Dende's face to flush bright red.

Telma looked at the young Namekkian. "Well, my word," she said to Agitha. "However did a Zora stay fine so long out of water?"

Piccolo intervened. "Don't mean to be rude here, but we are not 'Zoras', as half of the town has called us already. In fact, we have no idea what the hell a Zora is."

Vegeta frowned. "I'll bet that they are a race of green people that look exactly like you, unfortunately for them."

Agitha gazed in mock amazement at Vegeta. "Hey, look. Old Vegetable stopped acting in a bad mood and learned to use his head. The Zora people do look a little like you… Piccolo, was it? But they're more blue than green."

Krillin jumped. "You mean like Garlic Jr.?"

"Eww, no, I hate garlic."

"You too?" Gohan gaped.

Vegeta yawned. "We're wasting our time here. I could be training right now, to prepare in case someone like Cell comes along again!"

Telma gasped. "Cell? That reminds me of that young man, Link!"

"In what universe does Cell sound like Link, woman?"

"Plotline, Mr. Vegeta, plotline."

Krillin didn't look too happy, but he spoke. "For once, I agree with Vegeta. We are wasting time."

Agitha grinned, completely ignoring Krillin and twirling around in a circle. "Link! I remember him! Last I heard, he was doing some ambassadorial and informative jobs for the HyCoR."

"The what?" Trunks asked.

"HyCoR. Hylian Council of Races, the group that keeps political peace in Hyrule. Link's been going around and gathering what information he can on the situations and basically running important errands for the Councilmen. Now that I think about it, he's the guy who can help you find the Dragonball… Poor dragon—"

"Oh, sure, just blame us for the name!" Piccolo rolled his eyes.

Gohan then chose not to point out that Piccolo's people had created the Dragonballs in the first place.

"Well, what's so special about this 'Link' guy? Come on, let's hear it!" Dende said.

"Don't get your antennae in a bunch!" Telma said. "Long ago, the gods created a power called the Triforce. It had three parts, one for each of the original provinces—Faron, Eldin, and Lanayru. They were Farore's Triforce of Courage, Din's Triforce of Power, and Nayru's Triforce of Wisdom, guarded by dragons and ancient spirits of old. Their powers were given to a few mortals. Zelda, a reincarnated woman born of the gods got Nayru's Wisdom; Ganondorf, a dark and evil usurper, got Din's Power; and Link, our chosen hero and savior of Hyrule, got Farore's Courage. Link defeated both Ganondorf and his father, Demise, and sealed them both in the Master Sword almost two years ago." She checked to make sure that they were paying attention and continued.

"Link has been to every place existent in Hyrule. He's gone to Skyloft, where he was born, and has traveled to all six provinces. I think he's even been to Termina; those Terminan brats…" Then Telma looked up and remembered that she had company. Coughing nonchalantly, she said, "He could tell you where this Dragonball thing could be."

Chiaotzu jumped in the air, pulling Dende along as they spun around. "That's easy! All we have to do is find this Link guy and we can find the Dragonball!"

"Just one problem."

The duo stopped midair and turned back to Telma. "What do you mean?"

"Zelda, our princess and ruler, is the only one who always knows where Link is, and her whereabouts aren't static. Plus, her castle isn't really open to the public." Everyone shut up to process that until Vegeta broke the silence.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" he shouted. "Not open to the public? I _literally _kicked the front door of that blasted castle down! And, what's more, why the hell did all of you come through that Aeforce portal so late? I counted eleven minutes before I even felt your Ki forces! If you put two and two together, that's one minute BEFORE we even went through it! Agh, you useless fools stay here. I, the only non-coward and non-failure among us, will find this Zelda brat once again." Thus said, he jumped up and flew out the door.

Behind him, the brat Agitha yelled some very nasty words.

Vegeta's response? Not even so much as a chuckle.

...

* * *

_Hyrule Castle_

_Thirty minutes after the Aeforce_

_..._

**He** really_,_ _really_ shouldn't have waited.

When he got the message from his warriors back home in the Valley, he knew something was wrong.

It was Nabooru.

And the Gerudo Fortress was under assault.

Kyrior didn't wait for Kota and his guards to explain what they had found. By the time they were halfway through Nabooru's name, Kyrior was already halfway through the door, breaking into a run as the word "attacked" faded into the void that was his office.

"Ah! Sir, come back!"

_Goddamn it all! Not even an hour after I receive her letter, she goes and gets the Fortress attacked!_ He should have known that something was wrong. Nabooru hated the forests with a flaming passion that, if unleashed, would burn those same forests down. Why in hell itself would she be going there?

The answer was simple. She wouldn't.

The letter had said that Nabooru would be going to the forest in three days, and she hoped to see her "sweet" Kyrior again before then. Nabooru never ever said "sweet", and certainly never had asked him to visit her. He did that on his own—it was their own strange way of flirting. For Nabooru to ask for him...it was unheard of.

The only thing he suspected it could have been was this—Nabooru had attempted to warn him. She must have known that someone was onto her, and had written a coded message to him that would tip him off.

_At least, it _should've_ tipped me off,_ Kyrior thought with a grimace as he fingered the hilt of his katana. If he had been thinking, he would have listened to his gut and would already be by Nabooru's side. _I'm such an idiot, dammit all to hell!_

Kyrior sprinted through Hyrule Castle as fast as he could towards the castle exit that led to Gerudo Valley, the latter of which was inconveniently sandwiched between Lanayru Sand Sea and Eldin Volcano. He let out a horrified breath as he realized that there was no he'd reach her in time to stop whoever was coming for her. But he would try anyway.

_Crap, Nabooru_. _Hang in there!_

As soon as he cleared the castle walls, he ran to Zelda's stables, sweat dripping from his skin. Who cared if she was devoid a horse for a day? If it meant saving Nabooru, well, with all due respect? Screw her Highness.

"Sir! Damn it, Kyrior, wait!"

Only one guard even dared to call him anything but a formal title in his presence. He supposed he had expected her to follow out of loyalty, but to be honest he couldn't care less right now. He dashed over to the nearest horse and began searching for a harness.

"Kota, what the hell are ya doing, followin' me?"

"Sir!" Kota called once more, sprinting into the stable building at top speed. She was panting from exhaustion, but despite that she still managed to run to her king without too much difficulty.

"Turns out your 'ashes of affection' might just be that, sir," she said, as she reached for a small saddle and strapped it onto a petite chestnut mare. "The letter you threw into the fire earlier—I just looked at the ashes a minute ago, and they had a magical signature to them that I was able to identify as Nabooru's. She must have been counting on me to pick it up, seeing as how I'm close to you. So if you need to follow her signal to find her, then I should be with you."

Right. Kyrior had forgotten that Kota had non-combat magic skills far surpassing his own. She was an incredible tracker, maybe even more than that. Kota was the one who had allowed him to find the Great Fairy of the West that he had killed in the war. Her skills could be useful here.

There was no need to tell her that he accepted her presence, for she was already mounting her own steed and getting a feel for the harness. "Sir, I can sense her energy coming from the fortress."

He grappled with a saddle that was tangled with a nearby riding blanket, and in the end grabbed another one and swung it up on the side of the stallion. Upon studying the horse, he realized that it was Zelda's personal favorite, at that—she'd get a kick out of that. He'd have to pay her back, though; it took a lot of stamina to stay a jerk all the time, and right now he didn't have the endurance for it. Leaping up, he jammed his heel into the stirrup and urged the horse forward at speeds that he had almost thought an equestrian was incapable of. Kota followed close behind, holding the reins in one hand and a long widening broadsword in the other.

Neither one dared to talk, breathe, think, as they urged the horses into the scorching wasteland of Gerudo Valley. The amount of time that passed was unknown, only that the journey felt much longer than it probably was. As soon as they thundered down the swaying rope bridge that spanned the entire Gerudo Valley, Kyrior got a weird feeling. It was like someone had lit the air around him on fire, and his survival instincts were pushing him in and trying to make himself smaller.

"She's here," he stated, searching around the valley itself and not seeing a single soul.

Kota closed her eyes and then confirmed, "It's the same magical signal, sir."

"Crap." He directed the stallion down a wide and twisted dirt path that led to the entrance to the deserts and Gerudo Fortress, trying his hardest not to think about why she had sent the coded message in the first place.

They only saw the explosions and fire once they cleared the dirt path and came up to the fortress itself. And then everything Nabooru had done made sense.

The entire complex itself was aflame, smoke billowing from every open surface and then some. Every sandstone building was demolished, with problems ranging from caving roofs to full on structural collapses. A cloud of ash was thick in the air, mixing with the putrid scent of fresh blood. The entrance to Gerudo Desert itself had burnt as well and collapsed on one of the guard towers nearby, crushing it completely.

_This's what our kingdom's come to, Nabooru?_

Kota, the fire reflected in her eyes, swore loudly as her horse bucked in fear and threw her off. Kyrior's horse attempted to do the same, but he jumped off before it could get him off forcefully.

"Don't get distracted, Kota," he barked, lifting up his katana and pointing it forwards towards the flames. _Now I know what made me feel so weird before. "_Kota, gimme some help over here! _Reverse Fire Flow!"_

She nodded and lifted her broadsword up towards a different building as she repeated the same exact words he had.

A bright golden flash lit up the blade's tip and expanded into a large sort of funnel, which began to suck in the air in front of it into the tip of the blade. After a few seconds, the fire on the buildings started to flow towards the vortex, which glowed redder and redder the more fire it observed. It only took ten more seconds with the both of them using the magic before the flames were largely gone.

As soon as the smoke subsided, Kyrior saw a shadowy figure dash off through one of the main complexes, the last thing he saw being a mischievous grin on his face as he disappeared from view.

Kota had already seen the apparition and was already dashing on ahead to follow with broadsword handy. "On it, sir!"

"Where's Nabooru?" he replied, following suit.

In response, she pointed towards the building that the shadow had disappeared into. "It's looking for her."

Kyrior didn't need to hear any more to know what to do. In a flash, he leapt up and headed off into the building, which he knew led to an open training pavilion. As the sound of fires and smoke slowly faded, the sound of clashing blades suddenly stood out in exquisite detail.

"I knew you'd come, you monster!" Nabooru's voice, definitely. Hearing her voice was all it took to get Kyrior to break into a run.

_"You knew? What a lovely surprise! I'm honored to battle the Sage of Spirit!"_

"Don't be an idiot—this battle isn't an honor, it's an execution!"

_"But an execution of whom?"_

All of a sudden, the clashing screech of metal against metal stopped, and the assaulter's voice was no longer heard.

Nabooru was breathing heavily, loud enough that they could hear it from down an alleyway. Kyrior and Kota leapt onto the next level of terracing as Nabooru yelled, "Din's Fire!"

An explosion lit up the fortress's sky, the heat clawing at their skin as they raced towards it.

Not a second later, Nabooru let out a piercing scream that, thankfully, only Kota heard.

_"Really? HA! Pathetic! You don't honestly think that shit works against me, do you?"_

"Nabooru!" Kyrior cried, as the two Gerudos finally made it to the entrance of the pavilion and entered.

They got there just in time to see the shadowy figure stop in his place and look over his shoulder at them. In its hands it held two long shadowy swords, the longest of which was dripping with blood.

The figure itself looked like a mass of dark matter congealed into a person, twisting and shifting so you couldn't see any defining features besides a sickening smile. But the general figure itself… He looked so familiar to Kyrior, so obviously familiar; but for the life of him, Kyrior couldn't make sense of it.

_"Ah, look, it's the King and the Guard! …How completely expected."_

"Who the hell are you?" Kota said, speaking for her lord, as Kyrior was too busy scouring the area for his girlfriend.

He cocked his head to the side. _Why in good Hylia's name should I tell you?"_

"Because you are on Gerudo soil!" she barked, her grip tightening around her weapon. "And as executive leader of the Gerudo Warrior Guard, Kota Shari, I order you to divulge this information."

_"Alright, yeesh. I get it. Well, as you can see from the smoking buildings, I am clearly a pyromaniac."_

"Where is Nabooru?" Kyrior said suddenly, quiet yet forcefully. A shadow had fallen over him, and his hands were trembling as he spoke.

_"You really wanna know? …An execution she wanted, and an execution it was,"_ the being replied with a smirk, and then promptly disappeared.

Turns out that Kyrior and Kota couldn't see Nabooru before because the figure had been blocking her from view. She was broken, she was bleeding, and she was barely moving.

Kyrior took one look at her and all the hope drained from his heart.

"Ah! Sage!" Unlike Kyrior, Kota was not frozen in place. She dropped her weapon and ran to Nabooru's side.

"…K-Kota," Nabooru said after a moment, and slowly turned her head to face the guard. "I haven't seen you in a while."

Kyrior knew now he had failed in his attempt to save Nabooru.

_Damn…I was too late._

"Hey…you just gonna stand there like an idiot, or are you gonna talk to me?"

Kyrior froze.

"Just like I thought. You can't handle deadlines." The Sage of Spirit somehow managed to let out a scoff. She looked beautiful as always, even on death's door. Her long red hair was falling out of its ponytail, and her pink guard uniform was in tatters. The only thing about her that was somehow unharmed was her golden jewelry, which the two of them usually joked was invincible.

Slowly and stiffly, Kyrior walked to her and sat by her side. He didn't know what to do. Should he cry? Should he yell? Should he act like nothing was wrong? He honestly didn't know. Inside him was a void, a void that was slowly filling up with rage and fury. Sooner or later, he would vent it.

"Don't look like that at me," she said, her mouth turning up into a small smile. "What am I, a lost puppy?"

"No," he replied. "I'm just thinkin'. Whoever did this is gonna get what's comin' to 'em, soon."

"Kyrior," she whispered with a cough, grabbing his hand and squeezing it as tightly as her dying body could. "I thought I told you to come sooner." Her torso was drenched in blood, which was slowly forming a pool beneath her.

"I would've _come_ sooner if ya hadn't given me a f**king _coded _letter," he breathed, unable to feel anything but anger and hurt. This wasn't good. She was cold, very cold.

Without a word, Kota leaned down to attempt to treat Nabooru's wounds, but the Sage pushed her away. "No. No point."

"…I understand," Kota whispered, looking about as cold and angry as Kyrior.

The King snapped then. He needed to vent, and right now the only one he was angry at was himself. "Yeah, but I don't!" Kyrior yelled, looking Nabooru directly in the eyes unwaveringly. "Why the hell didn't ya warn me sooner!?"

"You jerk. I…I wanted to but couldn't…" Her grip on his hand loosened slightly, and Kyrior felt that same stricken feeling from before that he suddenly recognized as grief. "That bastard was watching me. He's the one who set the Fortress alight, King. _The demon."_

"Demon? That don't tell me nothin'! I need something I can go on to find the shadowy guy from before. Who was it?" he asked firmly, leaning in closer.

"Really wanna know, eh?" A tear slipped from her eyes as she smiled. "Sorry, Kyrior. You're not gonna like it."

Just before she died, she breathed one last word.

_"Diamonds."_

And her hand slipped from his.

_..._

* * *

_Inside the Prison_

_One hour after the Aeforce_

_..._

**Demise** hated himself.

Alright, let's face it. The great Demon King Demise hates everyone. But he hated himself with a burning, passionate fury, a fury which had never been rivaled.

Ever since the Hero of Time, Link, had absorbed him into the repulsively beautiful bliss of the Master Sword, Demise had been bored to hell. Nobody to hate. Nobody to smack around. Nobody to rule.

And then he had found both Ghirahim and Ganondorf, his reincarnated son, wandering around, both in his same predicament. Well, minus the hate-smack-around-rule part. He hated the emptiness and the boredom so much that he had let them follow him.

Demise couldn't care less about Ghirahim, the spirit that had failed him. As soon as he saw his former subordinate again, his first action was to smash a fist into the deity's crystal heart, leaving the spirit of the Dark Master Sword lying on the ground and wheezing.

But Ganondorf, or Ganon, was different. Special even. But definitely different than Ghirahim.

When Ganon had first appeared, Demise didn't believe that his incarnation had survived. And, not just once, but over and over again! He hadn't even been sure that the curse was going to work. From his evil (great minds think alike and all that) son, he had learned of all of the other battles, all of which the Hero of Time, the mortal Link, had played a part. He learned of Vaati, the Wind Mage. He learned of Majora, the god of trickery. He learned of Zant, the failed Twili usurper. He even learned about Dark Link, Link's shadow self.

Unsurprisingly, Ganon didn't tell Demise about the fact that none of those bosses could defeat Link, including Ganon himself.

Through his son, Demise became familiar with the present status of Hyrule. Also, he learned just how influential Ganon had become in manipulating the forces of evil and chaos. And he could see, in Ganon's yellow eyes, the same lusting desire for power that burned in him, the great Demise.

"Son," he had said while brimming with pride, "You have the potential to do what I have failed to do. You have taken over my role, and have played it well."

"Father," Ganon had replied, grinning, "It was nothing to crush those Hylian brats time and time again."

So Demise had been almost happy with his son.

Then, a few months later within their prison, Ganon had let slip that he and his minions had been defeated by Link every single time.

As you can imagine, Demise no longer wanted anything to do with Ganon, and all the while that anger and boredom kept getting stronger.

And now, this leads us to the present, with Demise, Ganon and Ghirahim sitting against the central pillar that supported the sword's ceiling.

All of a sudden, Ghirahim let out an exorbitant yell of joy. "Yes!"

Demise cast a deadly glance at the speaker, who just happened to look like he had won a marathon and had an all too happy look on his face. It didn't suit the Demon Lord. "Do you have a problem?"

"Eh? Oh, sorry, did I say that out loud? My bad." Within a second, Ghirahim was back to floating around aimlessly and playing idly with his tiny red diamond daggers, waving them around and slicing the air into pieces. "It was nothing. Just a tiny moment of success out there."

"Mm-hmm," Ganon deadpanned. "Out there? Like, outside the Prison?"

"…Maybe."

"Yes."

"Yes." Ghirahim had closed his eyes somewhere during this exchange, but at that moment he cracked them open to reveal pure white slits. "Yes, out there. Oh no, you caught me sneaking out again. Arrest me, officer."

"It would be funny if I gave a shit."

"I figured you'd say that, because if you knew exactly what I succeeded in, you'd murder me on the spot."

"I refer to my last paragraph of text. Let the readers see for themselves."

This wouldn't do. Ghirahim shouldn't have been enjoying the imprisonment—he should have had to suffer like both of the others. "Ghirahim," said Demise with a hiss. "I should hope that you're not having too much fun with your shadow splitting."

Shadow splitting was the name of the cloning technique Ghirahim had devised during their time in the Prison. It allowed Ghirahim to duplicate a shadow of himself with all of his abilities and no restrictions in terms of location—in short, it could leave the Prison, although eventually the magic faded and Ghirahim would have to recall the clone. He had refused to teach it to the others, believing it to be his own little trump card.

"Too much fun? Hah! You make me laugh, my lord. I can't have fun out there when I'm…well, not really out there." He let out a whoosh of breath and tossed his diamonds into the air, where they flew up and exploded in a flash of black light. "Honestly, I think I know why Link put us here. He must hate us so much that he wanted to bore us to death."

Ganon moaned, turning his back on the sword spirit with a whish of his cape. "We _are_ dead. Your jokes aren't funny."

The little demon held his hands out in a surrendering gesture, which would have been convincing had he not been grinning with his creepy eyes glowing. "I know, I know, just saying. Although other prisons give people yard time…"

Then Demise had an idea that might alleviate some of the boredom in this situation. You know, get the flames flickering again. "Well, if we're so bored, Son, let's see your sword skills. After all, you _almost_ beat the Hero of Time, so surely you can't beat Ghirahim."

That had the desired effect. Ganon trembled in rage as he held out his right hand, palm open. "Is that so? No faith in your own son." Within a second, a luminescent sword appeared in his hands.

"My, my. What a clever trick," Demise chortled in mock amusement. "And what blade is that?"

"The Light Sword, owned by the Ancient Sages, and used at my failed execution." Ganon swung the sword like a baton, getting the feel for it again. "I guess a heart stab isn't as fatal as they thought. Not on the keeper of the Triforce of Power—" Realizing his slip-up, Ganon swore.

Demise stood up sharply as the flames in his hair did stunt acrobatics. "WHAT? You mean that you have the Triforce?"

Ganon looked at his father with a pitying glare, no longer afraid since he didn't have to hide the secret anymore. "But of course," he said innocently. "That is, one piece of it. I hold the essence of the goddess Din, the previous keeper of the Triforce of Power." He pointed to his chest. "Any one piece of the Triforce grants near-immortality. Like I said. Fatal heart stab? Not so fatal."

_Bastard! That was my Triforce, long before it was yours! You have no right! _For the first time in forever, Demise wanted to turn back into the power-constrained Imprisoned. His gigantic, semi-unstoppable form could crush Ganondorf like a bug within seconds. A really, really tiny, insignificant bug. His son was still a Gerudo to a degree, and Gerudo were still human. And no human could withstand the thousands of tons of pressure that the Imprisoned could inflict with a stomp of its foot.

Still, he reined in the urge. "I don't care," he growled. "Just fight."

"Alright." Ghirahim licked his lips with his abnormally long tongue and smiled slightly. "This should be fun." The Demon Lord snapped his fingers and twin black rapiers appeared in his hands. "Oh, it feels good to fight with my swords again! Reminds me of the good old days."

"Is that so? Then let us duel. But be warned..." Ganon took the Light Sword in one hand and beckoned to Ghirahim with the other. "You might be in for an unwelcome reminder of how bad the good old days were."

With a shout, Ghirahim charged forward and began a merciless offensive. He hammered and hacked away at Ganon, who blocked every blow with either the Light Sword or his bare hands. Every time the metal rapiers clanged against the Light Sword, sparks of pure energy shot into the sky and zipped through the air.

Demise watched, slightly engrossed, as the Demon Lord and his son fought an epic battle. Ganon shouted and thrust his hand forward, causing a lightning bolt to come down from the clear sky. Thinking fast, Ghirahim threw his rapiers behind him and back-flipped away at supersonic speeds, outracing the flying weapons. Once out of the way of Ganon, he hit the ground and sprinted at the flying swords. Demise observed quietly as his student grabbed his swords and teleported right behind Ganondorf.

"Fool," Ghirahim said, or more like he panted. "You are no match for a Demon Lord."

"And you are no match for me!" Ganon was just as exhausted.

"Don't kid yourself!" With a shout of rage, he swung both swords with bone-shattering force at Ganon's neck. But Ganon barely moved as he threw his fist up to protect himself. Ghirahim's rapiers banged against flesh as hard as rock.

Ganon kept his back turned and clucked his tongue as Ghirahim stood, unmoving, in place. On Ganon's fist was a glowing, gold-lined triangle, split into four smaller ones. The upper triangle was completely gold, unlike the other three empty ones. "Ghirahim, Ghirahim, Ghirahim. Stop trying to hit me and hit me!"

With a roar, he spun around lunged with his sword at the crystal on Ghirahim's chest, his one weak spot. Ghirahim staggered as the Light Sword went through the gem and embedded itself in his torso, the glowing point sticking through the other side of his obsidian skin. Ganon chuckled evilly as he let go of the sword to let his victim die.

Then he gasped in shock and horror.

Because Ghirahim wasn't dead.

Ghirahim was, slowly but surely, pulling the Light Sword out of his torso, uninjured and very much alive. "Well, that was a little too close for comfort. I can pull off the rock skin much better than you. I'm _made_ of the stuff, remember!"

Ganon regained his calm façade and chortled softly. "Really? Well, that was just a warm-up."

Demise continued to sit and watch as the battle continued. Both Ganon and Ghirahim were matched in strength, but Ghirahim seemed to have the slightest upper hand, due to his superior agility and movement, and his smaller size. _No surprise. After all_, Demise mused, _he was trained by me_.

Suddenly, he felt a strange vibration in the air around them, the type that could only be caused by evil auras. Three people with strong power levels were approaching in the distance. "Finally," Demise growled, grinning. "Something to do."

...

* * *

**Heyo! If you haven't figured this out already, I really, really, REALLY like Ghirahim. Me being the failure that I am, the first adventure game I played with bosses was Skyward Sword, which officially scared the heck out of me with the Ghirahim boss battle. But I digress.**

**On another note, somebody please tell me if I'm blurring the lines between T and M ratings. I'd really prefer to stay T and don't want this story removed... *shivers***

**OC's and spells? Kota's back; I may or may not have lied when I said that she wouldn't be that important, I haven't decided yet. "Reverse Fire Flow" is a simple magic spell used by the Gerudos to put out fires, seeing as Kyrior's a bit of a pyromaniac and so are some of the warriors. It helps to have magic to cancel out magic, don't you think? Ghirahim's technique, "Shadow splitting", will come into play a lot. Like, A LOT. As explained, it allows a clone of Ghirahim to escape the Prison and manipulate the world outside, although he himself is still trapped. Poor demon.**

**I have some news for you. I'm thinking of taking a break for a week on this one, so I can post the "pilot" for another story i have. It's a fairly original idea concerning Bleach and Fairy Tail and my favorite Sexta Espada. If you like Bleach, I think you'll like the story. Depending on the feedback I get on it, I'll either make it a twice-a-month thing or find some other way to make it more often.**

**On that note, see you on a different page in a week! JTS is outta here to cram homework into the next hour! ;P**


	5. Conspiracies in the Rain

**I'm back again! JTS here with another chapter! This is my first full-out fight chapter _ever_, so I hope it's good. We finally get into the backstory I've created for Vegeta. PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEEASE don't hate me for messing up his childhood. I mean, it's kind of a grey area, his first few years. But after age six or so, we all know he becomes an asshole. So from this chapter on, I'm taking lots of creative license with his toddler years. This is just a warning I have to put in so I don't feel like garbage about it.**

**I've made by executive decision concerning this story, AFLCH, and my second story, Panther King with Wings (affectionately called PKWW). The fact that I got somewhere around three favorites within the first two hours of posting PKWW makes me kinda giddy *FANGIRLS*, so if people like it, I'll give it to them. From now on, I'll alternate weeks between this story and my other, using them as my main stories.**

**That's all my news for now: enjoy the chapter! I like reviews, favorites, follows, constructive criticism, and the like!****  
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* * *

**DISCLAIMER: I, JTS, do not own Dragon Ball Z or the Legend of Zelda. However, I did come up with a few OC's and spells myself, which I'll point out at the end of each chapter so there's no confusion.**

**WARNING: Every section following this sentence contains SPOILERSSSSSSS for both series! Read at your own risk!**

* * *

Conspiracies in the Rain…

...

* * *

_Hyrule Castle_

_Seven hours after the Aeforce_

_..._

**Impa** walked through Hyrule Castle, taking a leisurely stroll as she surveyed the new refurbishments to the palace. They had been incredibly successful, to the point where the castle looked even better than before. Wouldn't that be a surprise when the strange man came back! Although, he'd probably be surprised by how much less energetic the castle seemed in the early hours of the morning.

Yes, she knew that the man who had been there just last evening was coming back for more, looking for something. She could sense him even from this far away. Unlike the majority of Hylians, who had what they called "dormant energy", magical and spiritual beings had "active energy" that they could harness at will. While she couldn't sense his magic force, she could feel the rough timbre of his active energy slowly nearing the palace. She also knew that somebody with such a high and blatant active energy wasn't bound to be a very good person. No, Impa felt completely certain that she would have to fight.

The Sheikah pondered the situation as she stopped walking and stood in the center of the throne room. The weather had declined rapidly after Zelda's departure—a bad storm was definitely coming soon. She fiddled with her long ponytail, like she always did when she was idling.

Impa looked suddenly to the doors as she felt the power nearing. "It's time." She adopted a relaxed stance with her hands on her hips as the door slammed open, and in stepped the strangest person she had ever seen.

He was a middle-aged man, about thirty, but with an extremely muscular figure. He had spiky black hair that stood straight up and a visible widow's peak. He was about 5'7" tall, a midget of a man—by know she already knew she'd end up making fun of his height within ten minutes. He wore a sleeveless blue jumpsuit and completed the outfit with matching white gloves and gold-tipped boots. The man's eyes were glowing with a sort of gentle malice, like he could kill you without too much afterthought, but he would fight to protect that which he felt strongly about. Also, the man's cocky half-frown reminded her of the one Link had sported when he saved her from Ghirahim's wrath back in the Temple of Time. _Cheeky little Hylian punk_. That look reminded her that this was serious business.

"Welcome back," she said. "What are you looking for this time?" Impa was careful not to show any emotions and to simply wait for a response.

"…Didn't I demolish this castle?"

She sweatdropped. _That's what he notices? _"…A little."

"So is this the same place?"

"Beats me. I just live here."

"Don't play coy. I know what I did to the palace I 'visited' in the evening, and it's obvious now that the damage I inflicted has been reversed." The man spoke in a deep, rough voice. "Enough idle talk, woman. Where's this princess of yours? This Zelda woman. I need to ask her about something."

Nobody bypassed Impa to get to the Princess. _Nobody_. That was her cue to start being a jerk. "Really? Well, sorry, but you're out of luck. I have no idea where Zelda is. However, you might want to know that Sheik left about an hour ago to Zora's Domain." Impa struggled to maintain a straight face. Oh, how much fun this was going to be! Impa was a master at messing with minds. She was giving him all the hints without actually saying it—to anyone else in the palace who knew anything about Sheik, it would be obvious. "And, FYI, she doesn't accept male suitors."

The man scoffed. "How ludicrous that you would suggest I'm here for that reason. I have a son."

"My bad. Are you sure it wasn't an accident?"

The expression on his face clearly showed uncertainty.

"…Uh-huh… By the way, I hope you had fun earlier. I must say, not many intruders can survive the palace's dangers without either running into me, wimping out, getting perforated by moving spikes on wheels, or dying. Impressive, that flying thing you do. I can levitate to a degree, but that's about it."

He looked at her with a barely-concealed look of disdain and contempt. "God, today just isn't my day. I've been slapped by a girl Gohan's age, had my name insulted by a bar wench, and now you." He breathed deeply before continuing his rant. "Tonight has been a bad night, concerning women. I'm not in the best of moods, due to the fact that I was supposed to be here unnoticed and incognito. So do yourself a favor and get out of my way before I get angry."

Impa chuckled. "No way. I am Impa the Sheikah warrior, and the fighters of my tribe are known for their irritating stubbornness. If you want to get to Zelda's room, you have to get through me."

The man chuckled evilly. "Easier done than said." With a shout, he jumped in the air and attempted to fly around Impa. The Sheikah smiled coyly and simply teleported into his path, arms spread. Rapidly, he slammed on the brakes and stopped, inches away from her face.

"This is as far as you get."

The man hovered in front of her, shocked. "The hell? You know Instant Transmission too? I thought only Kakarrot knew that move."

The Sheikah lowered her hands and cocked her head slightly. "Instant Trans-what now?"

He gestured to Impa. "The move you just did! Instant Transmission!"

Impa tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. "Sorry. I don't speak anime." As her adversary glowered, she gasped. "Oh, you mean teleportation. I guess anime characters need to give fancy names to every technique."

"You have no idea, do you?" A raised eyebrow.

"Well, stuff along this line has happened before. There was this one guy with a sword and black robes who yelled this thing that sounded like 'Bankai' and then turned into an ice dragon thingie." She shook her head. "I seriously doubt that it's canon."

"…You too?!" But then he shook his head before he could start a very OOC moment. "We're off topic. Imagine this," the man growled to himself. "A mere human, a woman, no less, able to use Kakarrot's special technique! Impossible!" He balled his hands into fists. "Well no matter. I swear that I, Vegeta, Prince of all Saiyans, will never be bested by a foolish female."

Impa crossed her arms. "I have a name, you know. Impa. And by the way, what kind of a name is Vegetal?"

"My name is VEGETA, not 'Vegetal'!" Impa watched in mock awe as golden energy waves began to roll off of Vegeta.

"Wow. Neat charging trick. Next thing you know, his hair's going to change color and he's gonna tattoo his forehead with a letter in the first half of the alphabet." The Sheikah watched uninterestedly as her first prediction came true and his hair turned a bright shade of yellow. "Called it. Heh, blondie."

"…Yeah, well, so are you!"

"At least for me it's natural."

Vegeta flexed his muscles as the energy around him exploded outward. "There. Much, much better. Now the only matter that's left is to crush you!" In an instant, Vegeta threw his fist in a loose punch that should have bashed Impa's face in.

At that, Impa just laughed. She teleported behind Vegeta and spun around, roundhouse-kicking him in the left arm with enough force to slam any normal person into the floor. It wasn't enough to move him more than a few feet, though, and he retaliated with a quick series of jabs and kicks to her torso. She nimbly twirled and twisted around every one of his attacks, eventually leaping down from the air and running off down a side hallway.

"Get back here!" Vegeta roared, firing a blast of energy bullets from his hands at her, all of which missed as she wove her way through the barrage.

Impa kept running down the hall, the Saiyan prince just behind her and keeping pace. Thankfully, he had stopped firing at her for a few moments to figure out his aim—if he had missed any more than he had before, he would have broken a few support pillars and brought the ceiling down on both of them.

As soon as he went for Take 2, the bullets of energy instantly increased in strength and accuracy—she could feel the wind blowing past her now, too close for comfort. She needed cover from above, or it was bye-bye braincase.

Impa shot through the first open door on her left and instantly regretted her decision—an armory. Darknut suits of armor at every door, clay pots stacked meters high, and swords and spears propped up against every wall. If someone wanted to kill a person, this was the perfect place to do it.

She spun around to face the doorway just as a spotless white boot slammed into her ribcage. Pain shot up through her spine as she flew back onto the blunt edge of a wooden spear, and despite herself she let out a cry of surprise. That was gonna leave one ugly, ugly bruise. "Damn you!"

"I think you mean, 'Damn you, your Highness!" Vegeta roared, and let loose a wild barrage of kicks aimed directly for her torso. She reached behind her for the spear and smashed the blunt edge down on his coming foot. He winced and withdrew his attack, instead punching outwards to push aside the point of the spear that Impa was waving in his face.

The sharpened point drew a trace amount of blood from his knuckles, and he yelled out furiously. As soon as he did, a blue energy bubble exploded outwards, throwing Impa into the spear storage unit once more and vaporizing the spear completely. She groaned and got to her feet.

A shadow fell over his face as Impa staggered to her feet. All of a sudden, he looked shaken, like he was reliving a painful memory. For the life of her, Impa couldn't figure out what caused him to change from macho to wounded so quickly.

"Hey, what's _your_ problem?" she scoffed, getting to her feet.

"…Touch me with a blade again," he hissed, a fire in his eyes, "and you die."

"Why?" She reached down and picked up a discarded sword from another rack, waving it around in a show-offy fashion to hide her confusion. "Because I'm good with them?"

"You don't deserve to know the reason. Let's put it like this—the next drop of my blood that marks the floor of this palace will be followed by mountains of Hylian corpses. Got it?"

She chose to ignore that this seemingly uncaring man had taken the fraction of time required to memorize her race's name out of his life. Honestly, the threat just didn't seem all that real to her. As bad as it was, she didn't think he'd do it. "Maybe you could repeat it? I have a habit of tuning out incessant babbling."

"Grrr…" He pinched the bridge of his nose and began speaking very slowly. "Let me put this in terms you can understand. I bleed? You all die…horribly. Big exploding." He pantomimed an explosion with his fingers. "Boom."

"Uh-huh." Honestly, she couldn't be more disinterested right now—she really didn't care if he was having an emotional moment or whatever—all that mattered was whether or not Vegeta planned to kill her with these weapons. She was fairly certain that the guy would have enough strength and dumb luck to pull off a finishing blow, and that was certainly what Impa did not want.

_Time to get out of this room. _She rolled her eyes and hefted the sword again, teleporting behind him once again and slamming the hilt into the small of his back. The action shoved him forward a few steps, but that was all she needed. As fast as she could, she bolted out and ran down the hall towards the nearest set of stairs she could find. Vegeta growled a few cuss words at her and then pursued, his accuracy increasing once again as he pursued her from above.

The stairs were coming up on her right, a single enclosed straight staircase lined by the large tree-trunk thick columns. Impa grabbed the nearest marble pillar and jumped up, using her momentum to swing around the pole and launch herself towards the open doorway. As soon as her feet touched the stairs, she flipped backwards, kicked off the ground upon landing, and continued to sprint up the stairs, not even short of breath.

Vegeta was by no means as creative as her, and by no means as flexible as her either. He dropped down from the sky hard enough to crack the floor, then began dashing up the stairs after her.

"Great Goddess, Vegeta. Ever heard of creativity?" she yelled over her shoulder, skipping every other step.

"You want creativity?" he gritted. He held a hand out to the side, and the smallest blue spark appeared in it, flickering brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding. "How about this? Big Bang Attack!"

Well, Impa couldn't _not_ make fun of that. She stopped running up the stairs and doubled over, unable to control her laughter. An indignant prince stopped behind her. "Big Bang Attack? HA! That's seriously what it's called? Who's your writer—Akira Toriyama?"

"Actually, yes—SHUT UP! By God, you're annoying!" He launched forwards and swiped his free hand at her, to no avail. "I've had it up to my neck with you, wench!"

"I'm (snicker) sorry; that's very intimidating (insert hysterical laughter) coming from a man (laugh) about half a foot (semi-conscious giggles) shorter than me!"

(Called it.)

Any more and steam would have been coming from his ears. He said a few choice words, then added, "Gaah! Take this!" Vegeta roared at her and brought his hands together, yelling at a volume that was increasing rapidly. The light grew larger and brighter, until Impa actually stopped laughing and started to feel the waves of energy riding off of it.

And then she got just a little scared.

"Oh great." Impa took one look and the death orb and continued up the stairs, the gravity of the situation fully restored. The exit was right ahead of her—she could see the steep roof of the castle, the sloping blue shingles, the flash of bright green bushes. She had a quick vision of all of them on fire, but discarded it quickly, so as not to add to her uneasiness.

This was not going to end well.

"BIG...BANG!"

_Hehe…oh, f**k._

A brilliant blue light lit up the stairwell, a beam that followed her up towards the exit. She made a split second decision and leaped at the opening, the explosion behind her propelling her up and into the sky. The last thing she remembered was a flash of crimson against pale fluffy grey-blue and a hard pressuring sensation on her torso, and then she was mercifully unconscious.

Impa came to what felt like a moment later on the edges of a smoke-filled roof garden. Thankfully, nothing was on fire; though judging by the way her head felt, she might has well have been. The blast had propelled her up to the highest roof section of the castle, where the Statue of the Goddesses in he castle courtyard was just barely visible and the people looked like baby stick figures. Despite it being before sunrise, the sky above her was darkening rapidly, clouds marking ominous vulture circles above her head. She could also vaguely see the entirety of Hyrule and the Great Sea slowly lapping in the distance.

No, it wasn't over the distance that she was seeing this. It was from above, upside down, like her world had just dosed itself in hallucinogens. She was being dangled over a ledge on the roof, what must have been a mile above the ground. A few guards had noticed, and a large number of other civilians—oh, how puny they looked from up here! Way down, from inside the courtyard they looked like ants in an ant farm.

Impa gathered enough of her wits around her to realize just what her position was. Somebody had grabbed her braid, dragged her to the edge of the castle roof. She felt a strong tugging sensation in her head, and looked up with fuzzy orange eyes that couldn't see straight.

"Never, ever, ever deny a Saiyan Prince the information he requests," Vegeta said coldly, one pale hand wrapped tightly around her hair. Whatever transformation that he had undergone was complete and over. His eyes were a deep black again, his hair still spiky but no longer golden blonde.

Some part of Impa registered that she wasn't in a bad dream. For the first time after battling Ghirahim, a challenger had injured her. Even after all her training, her will, her desire to never be shamed like that again, she was on the losing side.

A hand reached up to her cheek, and came back red with blood. "Jerk," she mumbled. "You cut me."

"Oh? That's so? Funny. I thought explosions usually just killed people." His eyes flashed angrily—she could see that her attitude was bugging him. "I should fix that. Maybe you could tell me what I came here for. I am looking for something very important to my world."

"Your world? You mean Earth?"

He bristled at that. "To a degree, I suppose."

"But according to you, you...Saiyans aren't human," Impa ventured. She needed time to stall, to think of a plan. "No relation besides appearance?"

"And it's a good thing too." His voice betrayed his discomfort on the subject. _What, is his people's history difficult or something?_

"You are from Earth, though." It was meant to be a question.

"Don't be foolish. I am a proud Saiyan elite of Planet Vegeta, and the only remaining noble of my race. I am a warrior of the highest caste! To be compared to a pathetic human is the highest form of insult."

As retaliation, he held her out even further, so that only the heels of his feet were still on the railing. Impa was left dangling above the edge, her toes slipping on the midmorning misty shingles. "The highest form of insult indeed."

"Are you sure?" She raised an eyebrow, and then realized that she had just opened the cut on her forehead even wider and winced. "Ow... Are you sure being human is that bad?"

Vegeta waited for a moment, then proclaimed, "Entirely, wholly, and completely. I'm sure a person like you must have seen enough of those miserable creatures to realize why. Now, enough of your fooling around. Women are dangerous creatures—they worm their way under your skin until they get what they want. Even a fighter as pathetic as you is no exception. I'm no idiot, I know you're still plotting something." He crouched down and pulled her in closer so she was level with his eyes. "And I won't let it happen. So on that note, you can stop playing mind games and tell me anything you know about where this Princess Zelda is."

"I told you that Sheik already left, but you're not listening." She did her best to remain nonchalant.

"Humph. And who is this Sheik?"

"One of my tribesmen. A close..." Ally? "... Relative...of the princess."

"That's all? There must be more to this person."

"Oh, there is."

A plan, the faint outlines of one, popped into her head. It was more like a subplan, a smaller idea within a larger scheme. Oddly though, it had taken longer than expected to come to her. You see, as the princess's personal bodyguard and advisor, Impa had to be capable of both expecting and handling the unexpected. Her position in the "oh-so-prestigious" Hylian Council of Races as the Sheikah Councilman only furthered this need for quick thinking. So in a way, she had people like Kyrior Ambala and Raegef Brills to thank for her incredible mental capacity.

After about a minute of waiting for her to speak, and getting no further reply, Vegeta shook his head in disappointment. "Useless. You're of no use to me—I'm wasting my time. Better off asking a kitchen maid."

"They're idiots. I know more than all of them put together."

"Then answer my damn que—" He stopped suddenly, and his eyes went wide. "What is that mark on your forehead?"

That caught the Sheikah off-guard. _Of all the things to notice about me, he goes with the freaking tattoo? _"You seriously—"

"Need I ask you again?" he hissed, so suddenly and so icily that she froze.

Impa did her best not to move, in fear of losing her grip on the roof. Her entire mini sub-plan hinged on her having a solid surface below her feet. "This? This is my Sheikah tattoo. Etched in with a holy blade. The symbol of my clan, of the Sheikah warriors and assassins."

"Assassins," he echoed. His grip on her hair tightened, painfully. For a moment, neither of them spoke.

The wind threatened to topple them both off of the roof as the predicted rainstorm began.

Vegeta stared at her for the better part of a minute with an almost-loathing glare, ignoring the rain as it fell. Then he spoke. "This…this symbol is cursed in my family for generations upon generations. A Lament's Eye," he said harshly, finally, his glare taking on more of a cautious approach. "I thought something was off about you from the moment I saw you. This explains why I've hated you ever since I laid eyes on you, but wasn't able to understand why. You bear the symbol of the clan that Frieza conspired with to kill my mother."

She remained silent. What could she say to that?

"Do you know anything about this?" he yelled, suddenly sounding desperate.

"Don't look at me—I'm maybe your age, if that. Probably younger. If this happened when you were still in your childhood years, then I couldn't be old enough to have been involved."

That answer seemed to satisfy Vegeta slightly, but it obviously wasn't enough to completely calm him down. "That may be so, but it doesn't change the fact that that symbol on your forehead is a sign of the bringers of death. I'm still waiting for you to be helpful and contradictory to your mark, but unfortunately, you're not very convincing. Since this isn't getting anywhere, I think I'm done with you."

Her eyes widened, as convincingly as she could make them. "You wouldn't _dare_."

"Wouldn't I?"

_Yes, you would_, she silently agreed. She prayed that there wasn't enough rain on the shingles yet to make her slip.

Vegeta got to his feet and released her hair, dragging her up with him and letting her go while she was still half-dangling. Her arms backpedaled slowly as she began to slip backwards. Time slowed, stopped, then started again.

_Now's my chance._

After backpedaling for what felt like forever, Impa's feet slipped off the edge, and time went back to normal again. The stormcloud-riddled world suddenly shot upwards, taking Vegeta with it and leaving her behind. But just before she fell too far, the fingers of her left hand locked on the railing, stopping her fall with a jarring sensation.

Vegeta looked over the edge at her, uninterested but slightly peeved as he folded his arms and placed a foot on her fingers, pressing down firmly. "Humans are so stupid, I swear. When you fall, you're supposed to die—what don't you clods get about that?! I hate when people do this."

"Then you're gonna love this one," she said with a grin that he couldn't see.

Impa used the full weight of her body, which wasn't much, and swung herself back and forth, feeling the wind blowing her hair back and forth. With a yell, she pushed back and swung up and around, grabbing the cutlass in her belt as she soared back up and back on the solid side of the roof. Vegeta, startled and suddenly looking a little bit like he wanted to hide, took a hasty step back. Faster than he could follow, Impa unsheathed the blade and spun clockwise, slashing at Vegeta as she did so.

She landed softly with a single hand on the ground in a partial split as Vegeta stumbled backwards a few more steps and eventually fell down on one knee. His right shoulder was bleeding, but not too much. The red fluid was seeping slowly though his fingers; and for every drop of blood that fell, Vegeta appeared to loose a bit of his temper.

"You trickster," he spat.

"I prefer the term 'strategist'," Impa replied tersely, sheathing her blade and drawing up to her full height. Vegeta stood up as well, wiping the blood off of his shoulder.

"It doesn't matter. Forget killing the others like I said—I need to get the real story about you, right now. And if it means I have to beat the ever-loving crap out of you and then worry about the ants down there, then I'll sure as hell do it!"

What_ real story?_ she thought. _He can't seriously blame me for whatever happened. I don't even _know_ what happened!_

"You're forgetting something," Impa replied, leaning to the side and displaying the hilt of her cutlass. Vegeta seemed to shy away from the weapon, the action almost imperceptible. "Actually, two things. One, I have the advantage with a bladed weapon."

"And two?" he replied icily. For someone who appeared to hate weapons, he seemed especially gifted at glaring daggers.

To demonstrate her point, she spun around and pointed to the courtyard below. "We have spectators."

"The hell if I care. I'll get rid of that disturbance now!" He made a move as if to attack them again with that energy barrage from before, which Impa then decided was not going to happen again.

"Men, intruder sighted atop palace roofs! Holy Squadron, move to intercept!" she yelled down to them, and felt a whoosh of relief when the soldiers down in the courtyard rushed into the palace. Impa leaped at Vegeta and swiped at his face with her blade: and just as expected, he leapt away at even the sight of the shining metal.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" she yelled, as she pressed him back up the slope of the roof until they were both balancing at the peak. Her balance was so hard to keep, what with the rain-slicked shingles and the fury that was blinding her. "You'd kill those people just because of me? Hylia forgive you!"

"_Me?!_" he replied angrily, as he ducked under another swipe of the cutlass and used his boot to knock the blade upwards. As soon as she tried to recover from the opening, he slammed both fists into her ribcage where the bruise from the spear was forming. She doubled over, wheezing, as he picked her up with one hand and threw her down into the courtyard below. And then she was one with the rain as she toppled down haphazardly from the clouds above. It was all she could do to teleport away to another passageway near the roof of the tower.

Just as she got to her feet, her clothes drenched with crisp and clear rainwater, Vegeta appeared in front of her and wrested the sword from her grip. "You have no right to ask what's wrong with _me_," he said, eerily calm. "I'm still trying to understand _your_ link to my mother's murder! Everything wrong with you can be summed up in that accursed mark of yours!"

He lifted her blade high above his head, and that's when she struck. Now it was her turn to wrench the hilt from his grip as she teleported above him and flipped around, sheathing the blade. One well-aimed kick landed directly on his shoulder where she had lightly cut him, and opened the wound slightly. He growled and grabbed her foot just as she pushed off, swinging her down into the ground. As soon as she felt the cold marble walkway on her back, she teleported to her feet again and the two of them began a rapid-fire exchange of short punches and kicks.

She had to hand it to Vegeta. The man was a natural at close combat, with a very clear yet unique style. Each of his blows were strong and decisive, but every strike held a preemptive undertone and vibe to it. Obviously, they both knew what they were doing, but she had never fought someone with his type of power. He, however, had fought people who had fought like her before; that much was clear. He knew what she was planning to do. He was _toying_ with Impa.

That thought just made her mad. He knew what she was going to do, huh? Well, then, Impa decided to use something very un-Impa-like.

Magic.

"Eat fire, blondie!" She turned away from him and held her fist in her palm, and sparks began to fly.

Vegeta's black eyes narrowed to slits. "Isn't that Natsu's—"

"Din's FIRE!" she roared, and brought her hands forward as they sparked to life with a burning orange blaze. The fire exploded out in a tentacle of searing heat that drew light away from the world around it. She laughed as she realized that no rain could fall on her—the holy spell quickly evaporated any water in coming.

Vegeta yelped and ducked out of the way as the fire smashed down on where he had been standing. She careened the pillar of flame towards him, and he countered it with another blue blast of energy, which cut through the flames and slammed into a nearby turret. Din's Fire reassembled from the damage and began to shrink, but before it could get any smaller Impa launched the pillar directly at him like a massive flaming javelin.

At the last possible second, Vegeta flattened to the ground, and the fire sailed over his head and exploded tremendously against the castle walls. He was about to get to his feet when the turret he had attacked previously began to topple forward, and Impa and Vegeta rolled out of the way as the steeple tumbled over the side of the castle.

The two of them were silent for a minute or so, Impa catching her breath after using the magic, and Vegeta deep in thought. Finally he got to his feet, a thin sheen of rock dust covering him. One quick shake and dust-off was all he needed to get the remains of chalky stonewall out of his hair and clothing. "You know…I _really_ don't like you."

"Doesn't matter."

"Why?"

"Because the guards are coming." Impa barely concealed the grin on her face as she began to hear the faint shouts of soldiers tripping on their way up the stairs. Her diversion was coming together, and good timing too. Just when she needed to take a little time-out for herself.

And apparently, that was funny enough to make him laugh too. "AHAHAHAHAHA! You actually think those clods stand a chance against me? That's rich!" With a grin, he jumped up and sprinted at her, ready to beat the life out of his opponent.

_He won't have the chance once I'm done with him._

"Just a mo," she exclaimed, and in an act of sheer randomness she hefted her blade and sliced neatly through her sash, cutting off two of the long feathers and denting the buckle in the center.

"What on Earth?" Vegeta said, eyes squinting in distrust. He instantly put on the brakes and landed, trying to figure what she was planning. But he wouldn't figure it out until it was too late.

As she inspected the newly frayed ends of her sash with necessary dismay, the sound of clanking armored footsteps grew louder and closer.

"Pity. I rather liked this one. Here." She tossed her blade to Vegeta, who dropped it like a hot coal and jumped back.

"What is this about?"

At that exact same moment, a small group of twenty Hylian guards, all decked out with shining armor and a motley of weapons, came thundering around the corner. "What is the meaning of this, ma'am?!"

A devilish grin lit up Impa's face as she began to put on what would become her best show yet.

"Kyaa!" she cried, shaking her head rapidly and pointing directly at Vegeta. The soldiers all glanced at her, some with looks of concern, others with looks of disdain and discomfort. All with at least a trace of confusion, though. Vegeta had the same look on his face. "This rotten man has been following me, and he won't leave me alone!"

"I...what?" Vegeta mumbled, as confused as the soldiers as he cocked his head to the side and put his hands on his hips. "Well, I suppose that's an accurate…yet twisted…way to put our fight... Now wait just a moment—"

Before he could finish, she yelped and shook her head even more, running up to the nearest guard—who just happened to be the captain—and shaking his shoulders as if he was a ragdoll. "Oh, I've had enough of him. Captain, I need your help…" Then she slumped into his arms with a whimper, silently thinking to herself how embarrassing this entire situation would become if anybody started spreading rumors.

"What the _actual hell_ is going on here?" Vegeta grumbled.

"Ma'am, your injuries!" the captain exclaimed. To anyone who was unaware of the context of this cross-world showdown, Impa was indeed a sorry sight—her clothes in relative tatters, blood trickling from her scalp, burn marks on her darkened skin.

Something seemed to dawn on the captain, and he slowly glared at Vegeta through the slits of his helmet. "Who...? Him?"

Impa looked up at the captain for a split second before whining again, and shaking him while pointing at Vegeta again. "Horrible, that such a monstrous being exists! I won't take such treatment! Harassment, I tell you! Harassment!"

The captain's eyes grew large as he suddenly realized what she meant, and the other soldiers realized as well. A few of them cast very suspicious looks at Vegeta, which the Saiyan noticed instantly.

As expected, Vegeta's cheeks flushed bright red with embarrassment, then realization, and then fury. Impa had figured out his weak point. He had come across as very prideful from the start—and what Impa was insinuating was basically the greatest violation of pride a warrior could commit.

However, Vegeta's reaction didn't necessarily dissuade the already riled-up soldiers. "Goddamn woman! You would dare lie about a Saiyan prince? I'll have your head for that!"

Impa shrieked again—enjoying herself very much, I might add—and cowered behind the now-dizzy captain. "Oh, please, I beg you all, help me get rid of him!"

"Psychological warfare, is that it?" Vegeta roared, lashing out and kicking the cutlass at his feet, which flew forwards towards her. "You bitch!"

Impa grinned, returning to her old self again and retreating behind the soldiers. "That won't work. Men, please remove this man from the premises."

That was all the captain of Holy Squadron needed to attack—the order itself. He leapt forward and snapped the visor of his helmet down as he got between Impa and the weapon. As the blade flew towards him, he held up his round shield and spatha, and the cutlass bounced right off with a clang and flew back at Vegeta.

"What the—?!" Vegeta leapt out of the way of the blade as it skimmed past and just barely missed him; but not a moment after, the captain appeared before him and swung his spatha down towards his head.

Just as Vegeta dodged, another soldier appeared behind him and slammed the blunt end of a spear into the small of his back. He flew forward and managed to regain his footing just in time to dodge an arrow that a long-ranged fighter had launched.

"Raaaah! Enough!" With another roar, he lunged at the captain with his fist, aiming to punch him directly in the face.

His fist passed through the captain like air.

"Wh-what? What devilry is this?!" he said, shocked.

"Is that all you've got?" the captain said with little to no expression, not even slightly fazed by it.

"That's a good sample, captain," Impa said slyly. "I think it's time for the rest of the men to join in, don't you?"

"Yes, Ma'am!"

Right on cue, the majority of the remaining force flew up to intercept Vegeta, leaving only five of the weaker ones surrounding Impa as protection.

"Nrgh! This is impossible!" Vegeta exclaimed, leaping out of the way of one soldier and directly into the attack of another. They had formed a sort of loose sphere around him, each one stepping forward to attack if he got within a certain distance.

Impa let out a hearty laugh as she got to her feet and brushed off the charred dust on her clothes. "You idiot! Holy Squadron is comprised of only NPC's! You can't beat them, it's physically impossible!"

"N-NPC's?" He had barely finished speaking when the captain bashed the shield into his nose and the Saiyan flew back into the castle through the wall.

"Yes, Non-Playable Characters," she called after him. "They can't be physically interacted with unless you're aware of their programming, although if you present a threat to them, they will show no mercy. Hence…well, you get the picture."

He flew back through an open window just to run directly into the squad's co-commander, whom had a large hammer poised above his head and ready to strike. Vegeta just barely managed to throw up his arms and block the blow, but in the end the co-commander managed to push him back down to the ground.

"I programmed all of the Holy Squadron's fighters myself! They're undyingly loyal and the strongest fighters our army has. This squadron alone laid siege to Clock Town during the Greta Fairy War for three weeks straight! One bare-handed fighter is nothing to them. It's not a question of your strength—it's simply impossible to defeat them for anyone who isn't aware of their system."

As she observed Vegeta being pummeled by the NPC's, she couldn't help but give some credit to the soldiers. "Good job, men." Impa held out a hand to one of the ones who had stayed behind, who tossed her a small glass bottle containing a sparkling red potion. She drained it greedily down her throat, giving a little shiver of delight as all of her wounds began to repair themselves before her very eyes.

"Ma'am, your cutlass," one of the soldiers said, holding out the weapon. He had retrieved it without Impa even noticing—sometimes the extent of their abilities eluded even her.

"Thank you." She slid the weapon back into its sheath and stretched, turning her attention back to the prince just in time to see the captain and co-commander double-team him. The two came from above and below, and the attack overpowered Vegeta. With an enraged yell, he flew down towards her and landed painfully a meter away from her.

The soldiers in front of her moved to attack him, but one wave of her hand and they stopped. "That's enough, Holy Squadron. I'm healed now. Good work, you're dismissed."

"Yes, Ma'am!" And then the soldiers all disappeared, leaving a perfectly healthy Impa staring down at Vegeta.

"Good job against the Holy Squadron. You survived."

At that point she rammed her foot into his shoulder, and he shot back through the castle wall into one of the open hallways.

"_That's_ for demolishing the castle," she hissed.

As Vegeta tumbled to the ground, she crossed her arms and clucked like a mother hen.

"You bitch." Surprisingly, he didn't look all that injured. He must have had some serious fortitude somewhere in him.

"It's too bad. Vegeta," she chided, "I thought you were going to crush me, not attempt to crush me. There's a difference, you know."

"…God, that was annoying. This is what I call Android Saga déjà vu." Vegeta flew up to Impa's altitude, really looking like a midget in contrast to her 6' 1" height. "You are really starting to tick me off, Impa."

"Oh, look! The prince shows a semblance of brains and remembers my name!"

Vegeta growled, finally pushed to his breaking point. "I don't have time for this. Let's get this over with." With a shout, he transformed into the blonde version of himself from before, increasing the intensity of his aura dramatically.

Impa tried to contain her sudden nagging doubt about the outcome of this battle. After all, she was a warrior, and Vegeta was just a nobody prince. The Sheikah were more powerful and feared than even the Royal Family at times…and yet his power had just increased to her maximum level. Could he still increase his power even beyond what it was now? That wouldn't be good at all. Nervous, she adopted a fighting stance.

Vegeta sneered for an instant…

And then disappeared.

She silently swore at herself for losing him, realizing that his power was nowhere to be found. Impa lowered her guard slightly and checked the room. Nothing moved except for her heart beating rapidly. _No sign of him any—_

Almost an instant after thinking that, Impa flew down and slammed into the princess's throne, breaking through it and embedding herself in the wall. She groaned and tried to straighten out her thoughts as she pushed herself out of her very own homemade Impa-shaped crater.

"Nice move," she said, still slightly trembling as she massaged her aching back where Vegeta had slammed his foot down. "But I won't be beat that easily."

Vegeta grinned maliciously and flexed his fingers, hovering in the air. "Just you wait."

Impa laughed as she reappeared in front of Vegeta, idly smoothing back her hair. "All right. Here's the deal. I have a feeling that neither one of us has been going all-out for the past ten or so minutes. Let's fix that."

"You don't want to see me at my strongest, fool."

"Don't I? The way I see it, there are two types of people who fight me. There are those who stand no chance of beating me whatsoever!"

To accentuate her point, she teleported below him and grabbed one of his feet, swinging him down and throwing him into a marble pillar with an enraged yell.

"…And there are those that thoroughly beat me."

Now she stood completely still and let his next attack hit her, a solid kick aimed straight for her gut. She let out a whoosh of air and slid back in the air, although she ground to a stop before she could crash into anything again.

"What was the point of that?" Vegeta growled, the energy around him slightly increasing in magnitude.

"You want a real fight, you'll have to prove your worth as one of the second category."

"…You're saying this _after_ I've clearly displayed my upper hand in this battle?"

"What upper hand? Tell that to the NPC's that kicked your sorry ass." Impa placed her hands in front of her with palms out, one hand pointing up and one down. "I'm going to use the strongest Sheikah technique ever known. Land one more blow on me and you can pass. If you don't…" She blew her hair out of her eyes. "Well, you'll be dead."

The Saiyan prince chuckled, giving her the _oh-great-another-idiot-challenger_ look. She had seen that face too many times in the mirror to pretend that she had never seen it before. "Not true. If I land a hit on you, _you_ will be dead." Vegeta snapped his fingers and his hair turned black again. "I don't even need to be a Super Saiyan to beat you. Brute strength trumps all, Impa. But you're a weakling, so of course you don't know that."

"I'm ready." Impa tossed all playfulness aside, breathing meditatively. She needed to be calm to maintain the barrier.

A sneer found its way onto Vegeta's face. "Or are you?"

...

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**There we go. Now we have some action. Lots of references, too; at least, lots where I'm concerned. OC's? The Holy Squadron of NPC's was honestly a last-minute idea, but I like the way it turned out anyway. Vegeta's mother is sort of an OC, as there's no canon name that I could find. In order to get the name (which I promise will eventually be revealed) I had to scour Google for the better part of an afternoon to find the most commonly-used one. But her personality is completely original.**

**Next chapter—a little villainy goes a long way! Some more action within the Prison! Stick around, and I'll see you in twooooooooooooooooooo ****weeks! Bai bai!**


	6. We Have an Alliance

**Hello! I'm back...**

**Okay, I'm not gonna lie. I didn't put much effort into this one. I've been more focused, and I mean MORE, on Panther King with Wings, for the past week, prepping the new chapter. This one is also much shorter than I wanted; but, like I promised, that means I'm putting something new out during the week to make up for it. I think I'll put another fan dub out. Sorry, please don't flame me for anything that's not up to what I usually write. It's been a difficult week.**

**Well, enjoy!**

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**DISCLAIMER: I, JTS, do not own Dragon Ball Z or the Legend of Zelda. However, I did come up with a few OC's and spells myself, which I'll point out at the end of each chapter so there's no confusion.**

**WARNING: Every section following this sentence contains SPOILERSSSSSSS for both series! Read at your own risk!**

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We Have An Alliance!

...

* * *

_Telma's Bar, Hyrule Castle Town_

_Seven hours after the Aeforce_

_..._

**Back** at Telma's bar, Piccolo listened intently as Telma finished her long, Hylian history lecture. It hadn't been simple at all—not a thing she had said had made sense in the slightest. Although, he supposed that some things in this universe were bound to be confusing.

"All right, now you guys know some info about Hyrule." The saucy bartender put her hands on her hips as she eyed Piccolo curiously. _Some?! That was only a little!?_ "So, green man, tell me about this…stuff…you guys can do. How do ya fly? And shoot balls of fire? And what's with the horrendously outdated clothing?"

Piccolo fingered his cape and straightened his cap irately. "For your information, this cape is perfectly fine on Planet Namek!"

"…Where?"

Chiaotzu stepped forward from behind Tien. "And the uniforms are for martial arts and using our Ki to fight."

Krillin nodded feverishly. "We just came from a humongous battle. A really, really bad fight, to put it mildly." He pinched his tattered gi and lifted a worn sleeve to explain. "Cell wasn't really all that nice to us. And while some of us—" A pointed look at Gohan and Trunks "—had time to change, the rest of us came through the portal directly after the fight."

Agitha turned to look at the young Gohan and gasped. "I wondered why you all looked so exhausted! Poor guy," she said as she leaned towards Gohan, making him blush.

"Gee, thanks for your consideration," Tien deadpanned, noticing how only Gohan was on the receiving end of her enthusiasm.

"My pleasure!"

Dende smiled shyly. "Miss Agitha? I have a question."

It was Telma who shoved Agitha out of the way to bend down to the little Namekkian. "Yes, little one? What is it?"

"How will we recognize this Link guy? Or Zelda, for that matter?"

Telma straightened up suddenly, a skyscraper to Dende's cottage. "Oh, yes. I'd completely forgotten to tell you what they look like. In fact, I've completely forgotten _what_ they look like. I'm not as young as I look, you know. My memory flies with the years, hon."

"Link's always wearing a green tunic and brown baggy pants under," Agitha piped, ever the useful one. "He also wears this funny cap that flops down behind him like a nightcap. Oh, yeah, and he's always carrying the Hylian shield and the Master Sword. He's got really elf-like ears, blonde, ragged hair, and deep blue eyes."

She breathed in deeply. "But I think there's another way you can find him. You guys can sense powers, am I right?" When Piccolo nodded, she said, "Well, he's the second most powerful person in all of Hyrule, the first being his friend Midna. Oh, yeah, and Fi. Fi has the third-highest power. Then Zelda's fourth, and then Impa and Sheik together are fifth. After that, I'm not really sure."

Chiaotzu frowned, a strange look on the impish little boy. "Who's Sheik?"

Telma stepped in. "Impa and Sheik are the last two members of the Sheikah clan. Impa is Zelda's personal female bodyguard and best friend. Where Zelda goes, Impa goes. Sheik, well, nobody knows much about him besides his name. He's quite interesting, though. Comes through here often."

"Yeah, that's right," Agitha exclaimed. "So all you have to do is sense the three highest powers in Hyrule and you're set!" Agitha looked to see if the others approved.

Krillin, for once, was very enthusiastic. "Yeah! Thanks, Agitha! That'll work perfectly!"

"Glad I could help!"

"Guys, I have an idea that might work." Gohan got everyone's attention and then explained his idea. "Maybe we should split into groups to find either this any of these people. Tien and Chiaotzu can find Sheik, Vegeta already left to look for Zelda so he'll probably run into Impa on the way, Trunks and I can go to find Link and his friends, Piccolo can take Dende to meet up with Vegeta, and Krillin can take the Radar and try to search for the Dragonball."

He clapped his hands, smiling. "Any complaints?"

"Yeah," Yamcha said. "What about me? I think it's totally bogus that you forgot me!"

Tien crossed his arms and blinked his three eyes lazily. "I don't work with weaklings."

Piccolo laughed nervously. "Well I'm not going with him! I already have Vegeta to deal with."

Krillin groaned and sagged like a sack of flour. "Fine. I'll take him." He nodded to Yamcha, who just sighed and joined him.

"Perfect." Telma clapped her hands. "And you'll have to meet again somewhere. If you all go north after completing your tasks, you'll meet up at Zora's Domain. Top of a waterfall, small cove, up the river in the north. All water leads there, unless you get too close to the Great Sea. Easy to find."

"Uh, what about me?" Agitha pointed to herself, a confused look on her face. "I can help, you know. I know more about Hyrule than you do."

Gohan muttered something to himself, then turned to face her. "But Agitha… Judging by your personality, you've never been in a real fight before. You're really nice, and I don't want anything to happen to you."

Agitha finally relented. "Fine." She leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips, then pulled back as everyone stared at her. Blushing, she shoved everyone out of the door. "Go! Now! And remember, there are still plenty of evil things floating around. Come back safely!" As soon as they were out, she slammed the door shut.

"Everyone," Gohan said, his hands clenched tight and his eyes wide, "I think I'm in love."

"Pfft," Yamcha replied, crossing his arms. "It's not even canon."

"And calling it a crack couple in an AU is generous," added Krillin with a snicker.

Piccolo looked to the skies as if searching Heaven for a sign, grumbling to himself. "Goku, I seriously hope you weren't watching just now."

After a couple seconds of hearing what sounded like static in his head, he heard Goku's voice respond from Otherworld. _"Yeah… Sorry, Piccolo, but I was. Do me a favor and tell Gohan that he's not allowed to date until he's eighteen. Okay? Or Chi-Chi will kill me."_

King Kai's voice butted in, and Piccolo chuckled softly, as he could almost see his annoyance. _"Well, _I_ was never allowed to date, and I'm still not! Stupid West Kai! I will not let the injustice stand! Goku, let the boy do what he wants!"_

"Piccolo?" The Namekkian snapped out of his trance and looked down at Gohan. "Something wrong?"

"No, Gohan, but Goku says that you're not allowed to date until you're eighteen and King Kai has girl problems. Got that?"

Gohan rubbed the back of his head, blushing furiously. "He he, yeah… How many years is that?"

"…You're kidding, right?"

Trunks examined the Dragon Radar, trying to pinpoint where the Dragonball was. At last, a blipping yellow dot appeared on the grid in the direction of Hyrule Castle. He handed the radar to Krillin, who stared, transfixed, at the dot.

Trunks put one hand on his head and frowned. "I can't really explain, but I can only get a general direction from the radar. And even that's unsure." He looked at Krillin and Yamcha with his Bulma's fierce, intelligent eyes. "You guys will be going with no real lead, but it's all we've got."

Yamcha gave Trunks a thumbs-up. "No worries, Trunks."

"Coming from you, Yamcha, even that line worries me."

Piccolo straightened his cap again. "Alright, time to go." The group nodded and split, flying in different directions until disappearing like hidden stars in the afternoon sky.

_..._

* * *

_Inside the Prison_

_One hour after the Aeforce_

_..._

"**You** cheating bastard! I'll kill you!"

"I'd like to see you try!"

"I told you to fight, not act like toddlers fighting over a Barbie doll. Why don't you amp it up a little, Ghirahim?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Father! Do you want me to die or something?!"

"…Currently debating whether a yes is a better answer than a no."

Cell looked forward with an intrigued half-smile on his face, watching the swordfight in the distance. There were three people, like he had sensed, but something was weird about them. Their Ki was all off, very off. Not evil-type off—although he could sense a dark aura from all three—just different. It was barely Ki at all, but power was power and therefore he could measure it on some warped scale of power levels. One of them was leaning against the central support pillar, easily the size of King Cold. He had black skin and fiery hair. A brown cloth was draped around his waist like a kilt.

The two swordfighters were releasing enormous power, no matter what way Cell tried to downsize it to make himself feel better. The larger one with the glowing white sword was about Cell's size, with dark grayish skin and a golden crown-like headpiece holding back his red hair. With a malicious grin on his face and a stance that practically screamed preparation and planning, he reminded Cell a lot of himself.

But the other one was completely the opposite. The smaller one of the fighters was only slightly taller than Frieza, with jet-black skin, white markings and hair, and a huge red gold-leaded crystal on his chest. He held two twin rapiers with a red diamond embedded in each hilt, and was prancing about on his toes as fast as if he was made of air.

"What an…interesting display," Frieza said, clearly unimpressed from the tone of his voice. "Have they even noticed us yet?"

"I think the largest one might have," said King Cold.

As expected, a vein popped in Frieza's forehead. "Is that so? They must think they're all-powerful, instead of trembling in fear from our arrival! Cocky jerks."

Cell turned to face Frieza, frowning. "Shut up, Frieza. They're stronger than us. I don't know how, but they've got higher power levels. So they deserve to act cocky."

Frieza appeared stunned for a second, then smiled nonchalantly and chuckled. "Still, I doubt they have the means to use such huge reserves."

Frieza was proven wrong by a flash of lightning that appeared from the weather-less sky inches in front of his face. He shrieked like a little girl and stumbled backwards, getting the attention of the smaller swordsman.

Cell's own words decided to haunt him then. _You know what they say: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. _And just because they were all clearly evil people didn't make them the same side.

He was drawn out of his internal monologues when King Cold hit Frieza on the head with an iron fist. "I trained you better than this." By now, the group was only twenty meters away from the support pillar. As Cell watched skittishly, the sword battle dwindled to a sluggish shell of what it had been before, seeing as both of the fighters were now distracted. He immediately lost interest in it, but chose to watch the closing anyway.

"…Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa!" the smallest one yelled, leaping to the side as a volley of red lightning obliterated the water where he had been standing. "Easy, you pig!"

"Pig!? How dare you!"

"If you're gonna fight me, fight me at your fullest!"

"Listen to your own advice!"

"Both of you, enough!" the largest of the three suddenly snapped, and instantly the two stopped mid-tussle. _How much authority does he command, to get those two to stop?_

"I thought you wanted us to fight, Father!"

"I did. Now I don't. Because now there's more interesting things to do." The man with the fire for hair stood up, looking unbelievably bored as his eyes locked onto Cell. "More villains, like us, killed for Link's pleasure, have made their way into the Prison. And you are?"

Cell took the liberty of introducing them. "My name is Cell. The small one with the purple head is Frieza, and the one behind me with horns is King Cold."

"Wait a second, one of you is _Frieza?"_

Cell looked for who had spoken and instantly found his gaze resting on the small man with the white hair. He had a strange look on his face, between confusion and alarm. He pointed to Frieza. "That one. Why?"

The guy pursed his lips for a moment before replying, "…Ah, no reason." Nonchalantly, he threw his swords in the air, where they disintegrated into red and yellow diamonds of pure energy. He then stormed up to the largest man in a huff, asking, "Lord Demise, can I get rid of them? I'm in a sucky mood and I can't cut your stupid son in half without the risk of imploding."

The huge guy, Demise, just frowned. "No, Ghirahim, they're…interesting." Demise turned back to the pillar, mumbling angrily. "More interesting than this _infernal _place!" On the word 'infernal', Demise threw his hands up in the air and was engulfed by a black tornado that shook the whole structure. Not to be fazed, though, Cell, Frieza, and King Cold took to the air. Cell looked at the Ghirahim guy and the other one, who were flying as well.

"Not bad," the other one mused. "Even for people weaker than me, you still appear remarkably strong."

Ghirahim looked sharply at his partner. "You should shut your babbling mouth, Ganondorf. I almost beat you. The newcomers were your lucky break."

Ganondorf ignored Ghirahim and addressed the newbies. "I am Ganon, the Dark Lord."

"…Ganon, the… I'm sorry, your name just sounds so stupid, I can't say it without laughing," Frieza snickered.

"I'll kill you, whelp!" Sparks shot off of Ganon's glowing sword, flickering in the air.

"Just try!" Ghirahim put his hands on his hips. "And then face Demise over there. I'm sure he'll have a 'gentle' punishment for you for obliterating his only source of decent entertainment."

Frieza began to laugh aloud. "Oh my, it appears I've interrupted some daddy-dilemma therapy," he said between outbursts. "Father, this place is hilarious. Can we stay?"

To answer, King Cold slapped Frieza in the back of his head, causing him to slam into the ground without leaving so much as a crater behind. "No, Frieza, we are not doing anything you've suggested. If only your brother Cooler was dead, I'd have taken him with me instead."

Now Ganon began to laugh. "And I thought _I _had a dysfunctional family!"

The tornado surrounding Demise disappeared suddenly, showing the sight of a breathless Demise with his hands still high. Slowly, they lowered back down again, defeated. Almost immediately after Demise's hands were down, a robotic female voice rippled melodiously through the air.

"That was a mistake, Lord Demise. There is a 95% probability that that attack had no effect. Correction: 100%."

"Fi," Demise growled, looking at the sky angrily. "Shut up!"

Following Demise's gaze, Ghirahim smoothed his spiked white hair back and grinned. "Fi, sweet, you're looking good."

"Do not senselessly flatter me," the voice named Fi called. "You cannot see me when I am not there."

"Well, your sword is looking sharp."

Ganon let out a groan. "Oh my god. Ghirahim, that's just not something you say to a girl, no matter if the innuendo is purposeful or not."

"O course, you see it like that. You're not taking it literally enough! We're sword spirits—we are literally both bladed weapons. It's a perfectly straight pick-up line!"

Horrible pick-up line or no, Fi didn't seem to fall for it. "…Surprising. I am afraid that your efforts to win me over to your side are fruitless, as I am loyal to the Hero of Time and he alone. Midna," the Fi voice said with a twinge of impatience, "Would you like to go in there? I permit Fused Shadow use to teach my _friends _down there a lesson.

Another female voice, bubblier and much less robotic, giggled mischievously. "I'd be happy to!"

A black and green portal appeared in the sky, in severe contrast to the serene white surroundings. It looked like computer chips stacked on top of one another with no real planning. As Cell watched, both intrigued and confused, a cloud of small, black squares came zipping out of the portal, stopping abruptly in front of the group. Demise floated up to get a closer look as the squares formed a creature, the likes of which Cell had never seen before.

Midna was tiny, maybe two and a half feet tall. She had dark black skin and a pale blue face. Her huge, grey stone mask/hat thingie took up the bulk of her height. She had tiny little pale green tattoos that went up her arms and legs. Her fierce, playful eyes were yellow, with red irises, but upon making eye contact they turned violently savage. Her face was forever stuck in an impish grin, so that two stubby little fangs peeked out form the corners of her lips On top of that, she had bright red hair that looked like it was shaped in the form of a fiery hand, and the hair looked ready to act the part.

"Ghirahim, you don't look so good," Midna chided with a cluck of her tongue, pulling a long piece of straw from her mouth. Cell identified that voice as the high-pitched one they had heard from the sky. He cast a quick glance at Ghirahim, who had cast aside his calm demeanor and was visibly worried.

"Midna, come on. It was only a joke," Ghirahim pleaded nervously with the young creature. "It doesn't benefit anyone if you go all Fused Shadow on us."

Midna laughed snidely. "No worries, Ghirahim. I don't need to use them to beat a disgusting monster like you. You're weak enough for me to do it with my bare hands!"

Cell observed quietly as Ghirahim snapped. "Weak?"

The imp's grin grew wider as she snapped the piece of straw neatly in half between two fingers. "Like a twig."

"Pah! You dare insult the Demon Lord? Before, I was worried, but now I'm furious!" The young deity adopted a fighting stance and materialized his rapiers with a sneer. "I'm going to deafen you with the sound of your own screams, and make it so that you'll never see Hyrule's sweet daylight again."

From high above, the voice of Fi could be heard, robotically musing, "Now where have I heard that one before?"

"Shut UP, Fi!"

"It doesn't matter, oh grand Calculatrix," Midna called up to her. "I hate daylight. _Twilight_ Princess, remember? If it was Daylight Princess, it would be rated E, and I'd be bright pink and covered with rainbows."

Frieza floated over to Ghirahim and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. "If you need a soulmate, there's this guy named Zarbon who I think would be perfect."

"Go to Hell, Frieza! I'm not gay!" He spun around and kneed Frieza in the stomach.

Midna cocked her head. "Could have fooled me… Hey, wait, you're the newbies!" She observed Cell, Frieza, and King Cold with a newfound interest. "So, new residents?" She shouted up at the sky. "Fi, did Link recently kill anyone really evil while I was out last night?"

Fi responded, "No, I calculate a 110% probability that they entered on their own accord."

"Well, no matter," Midna sighed. "It'll be fast work down here. I'll start with the others and end with the newbs."

With a roar, Ghirahim charged. Midna effortlessly sidestepped and kicked him in the chin, leaving him tumbling up into the sky until he was just a speck.

"God, too easy." With a laugh, she disappeared and appeared behind Demise. She grabbed his arm and swung him into his son Ganon, who toppled to the floor. Ghirahim, conveniently, fell out of the sky directly on top of them. Midna swooped down and stood atop the pile of villains, snickering. "Keep at it, guys. This place nullifies evil magic, so there's no point in even trying. You're _half_ the men you used to be!"

_Magic?_ So that's what they used here. That explained why the sensing of powers felt so off to Cell. While the villains may have been powerful, magic was an entirely different level and therefore hard to compare to Ki. _But why do we still feel powerful if this place nullifies evil…magic? Oh, that's right. Since we don't have magic, we are still at our top strength._

At this moment, King Cold sneered, but not at the imp. No, he was laughing at the overthrown trio. "And here I thought they were worthy adversaries. Toppled by an impish girl!"

Grinning, the Midna person turned to face him. "You're next."

She snapped her fingers and instantly teleported behind King Cold, who whirled around to face her. "Strange. From what I can sense… You're almost as powerful as Link, big guy. But no match for me."

She reached out to grab his arm and swing him around, but King Cold was faster. He swung around and bashed his foot into her arm, throwing her down to the side.

"Raah! So you wanna play that way? You'll learn the way this place works, sooner or later! I'm the jailkeeper here, and I think I've decided on terminal punishment!" With a roar, she began to glow with an intense red aura.

"I don't get it." Frieza rubbed his plated head and looked at the intense red glow. "She's not charging, but summoning something."

Frieza's theory was correct. The aura disappeared instantly, leaving three stone pieces of armor floating in a circle around Midna. "These are the Fused Shadows. When I combine all of them, they turn me into an unstoppable twilight beast, with my powers increasing tenfold."

"They look like dinner plates," Cell mused out of nowhere. It was out before he even noticed it.

The prison was silent for a moment.

"…What?" Midna had obviously never heard somebody react to the summon with such a trivial attitude.

"Yes," Frieza said, realizing the same thing and pointing at each piece individually. "I can see the resemblance. They remind me of silverware also, the little markings on the sides."

"I wonder if she cleaned that before it put it on."

Midna's eyes narrowed to slits.

"Say, Frieza, do you think the hat is the cup?"

"ENOUGH!" Now Midna was angry and had lost all self-control, which was—surprisingly enough—not planned at all. (Still pretty convenient though) Midna was raging now, and the fused shadows began to glow malicious red. "You newcomers think you can just waltz in and disrespect the ancient magic of the Twili tribe? Well, I'm officially pissed. Prepare to die!"

"Uh, Midna, is it?" King Cold raised a hand like he was in kindergarten. "Aren't we already dead?"

"Yes, but I promise that you villains will die again!"

"Harsh."

"You have no idea."

Midna gave an ear-shattering screech, and the glowing pieces of the Fused Shadows slammed onto her body. Now completely covered in stone armor except for her arms and legs, she began to change. She began to grow much larger, and enormous dark energy tentacles grew from the bottom of the armor. Finally, the humongous Midna shrieked again.

"Holy Shenron, she's serious." Frieza laughed slyly. "But no match for the combined forces of King Cold, Frieza, and Cell!"

For the first time since their arrival in the Prison, Cell let out a delighted villainous laugh. "My Kamehameha, King Cold's Full Power Death Beam, and Frieza's Planet Burst should crack those armor pieces in half and get the message through."

Frieza calculated silently in his head. "I don't think that's enough. It's obvious that we're in a different dimension now, and we don't know how our Ki affects beings in this world. So," he said as he looked pointedly towards the three Hylians standing on the chamber's floor, "We need their energy attacks as well to ensure her defeat."

"Well, if you boys think it will work, then go and get them." King Cold pointed a purple hand at the ground.

"Why do we have to go, Father?"

"Because, if you don't, I'll cut the number of people you're allowed to kill daily in half."

"…Fine." Frieza and Cell floated down to the ground in front of the Hylians.

Ghirahim saw Frieza and scoffed. "We don't need your help. I'm the Demon Lord of the Surface, so you can all just—"

"Say, Ghirahim," Cell interrupted. "You want to _really_ annoy Midna?"

The Demon Lord stopped mid-rant. "I'm listening."

Frieza leaned forwards like he was about to tell Ghirahim a secret. "We have an idea how to beat her. If you all hit her with your strongest energy attacks while we hit her with ours, the…Fused Shadow thingies should break."

Ganon and Demise were now listening as well. "Yeah," Ganon said as he caught on. "I can use my Deadman's Volley magic."

"Skyward Strike for me. Ghirahim? Assume the position," Demise commanded.

"Yes, Master." Ghirahim crossed his arms over his chest and began to glow with a dark, purple light. He then threw his head and hands back and was surrounded by a huge black tornado not much different than the one Demise had conjured. When the winds died down, a huge sword with a serrated blade and a handle shaped like a raven was seen floating in the air. Ghirahim's ruby was placed on the black hilt.

Demise held out his hand, and the Dark Master Sword flew obediently into his grip. "Ready, Frieza. Let's kill that Twili traitor!"

Cell nodded to Frieza, and the four villains (five if you count Dark Master Sword Ghirahim) flew up to join King Cold. They assembled in a semicircle facing the furious Fused Shadow Midna, who was advancing slowly, in no hurry.

Cell turned sideways and put his hands in position. "Kaaa… Meee… Haaa… Meee…"

Frieza laughed and pointed at the ceiling, cackling cruelly as a yellow, marble-sized energy ball appeared above his finger and began to grow exponentially. "Planet…"

King Cold watched his son with some strange version of pride and began to charge his own attack. He pointed at Midna nonchalantly. "Full Power…"

Ganon raised his sword to the sky, grinning as a ball of black-and-purple energy began to spark and draw in light from the surrounding air.

Demise hefted his sword in his hand. "Ghirahim, let's see what I taught you." He raised the sword skyward, and a lightning bolt shot out of the otherwise clear sky and electrified the Dark Master Sword. "Skyward…"

Midna seemed to realize the threat that had sprung up with the union of these villains. She increased her pace, shooting forward in the air towards them.

"NOW, EVERYONE!" Ganon swung his sword forward to point at Midna, finishing his attack's charging. "FIRE!"

The rest followed suit.

"HAAAAA!"

"BURST!"

"DEATH BEAM!"

"STRIKE!"

The attacks hit Midna in perfect sync, shoving her back against the central pillar. A giant crack spread from the bottom of the armor, shattering the Fused Shadows into a million particles with a surprisingly lackluster explosion. Cell, Frieza, Ganon, King Cold, and Demise dropped down to form a semi-circle in front of her. Demise threw his sword on the ground next to him, where it shattered and released Ghirahim.

The normal-sized Midna appeared on the ground, shaking from confusion and anger. The only piece of her armor that had survived was the headpiece. "You'll pay for this, monsters! I will get you all for this, I swear. You destroyed my only link to my ancestors, and you are going to pay the price!"

Frieza put on his innocence mask. "Pay the price? Now that's funny."

"I hate you all, newbies." Midna stood up with determination in her eyes, but she no longer looked very intimidating without those Fused Shadows. "At least there's comfort in knowing that you'll always be here so I can exact my vengeance on you."

Cell raised his eyebrows. "Always, really? Well," Cell proclaimed, "we shall have to rectify that."

Now Midna raised her eyebrows. "…I'm watching you." With that, she dissolved into the little black squares and zoomed back up into the portal, which promptly disappeared.

"Great." Frieza clapped his hands twice, getting everyone's attention. "Now that the imp is gone, what do you think about an alliance?"

_..._

* * *

_Hyrule Field_

_One hour and ten minutes after the Aeforce_

_..._

**Midna** gasped as the portal spit her out, leaving her on the damp Hylian grass. How the hell had they done it? Those newcomers had _destroyed _the Fused Shadows!

Ever the timely one, Link saw her fall to her knees and worriedly asked, "Midna, is everything okay?"

The Twilight Princess turned to see Fi shaking her head silently behind Link's back, and hastily decided upon Lie #467. "Yeah, Link. I'm fine. I just…had an asthma attack."

Fi cast her a knowing glance.

A perplexed look crossed Link's face. "Asthma?"

"A chronic lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways," Fi supplied.

Midna cast her a part-grateful and part-annoyed look. "…Yeah, that one. What of it?"

"I…Whatever." He clearly didn't believe her, but let it slide seeing as Midna tended to have a reason for her lies. Link walked towards the greenest, tallest patch of grass he could find and flopped down with a sigh. "I'm gonna take a nap." Within seconds, the Hero of Time was fast asleep.

Midna caught Fi's gaze and ran over to her friend, and the question she wanted to ask was already evident in her eyes.

"No, Midna." Fi shook her head solemnly. "We cannot have him obsessing over something like this. He will go…I believe the words he would use are 'absolutely f**king insane'."

"…I guess you're right, Fi." Midna turned to look at Link, who had his legs crossed, arms folded, and a piece of straw sticking out of the corner of his mouth. "Hell, you've probably calculated this whole situation into oblivion by now."

Surprisingly, Fi bit her lip and responded, "I have. Extensively."

"I hope we're prepared for whatever's coming."

"Do not worry, Midna." Midna felt a light (yet intangible) hand on her shoulder. "We will be."

...

* * *

**...Yay? I hope I'm just blowing its suckiness out of proportion. But I promise the next one will be better! And PKWW shouldn't be so sucky either.**

**No OC's this time around, or for a few more chapters. I hope you guys like the way I made the villains meet for the first time. Again, if you can't tell yet, I love, love, LOOOOOOVE Ghirahim. *fangirls self into oblivion and forgets she has a rehearsal in twenty minutes***

**Next chapter, we have the closing to Vegeta's fight with the Sheikah warrior, stuff in the sky, and as close to deus ex machina as a dragon gets!**

**Oh boy. *suddenly remembers she has a rehearsal in twenty minutes* Well, JTS has gotta run! See you in a week!**


	7. The Search Begins

**Heyo! IMSOHAPPYANDSADATTHESAMETIMEIDONTKNOWWHATTODOMYSCHOOLPLAYISOVERIMNEVERGONNASEEMYCONGREGATIONOFSEVVIESAGAINSANDIMSOSADDDDDDDWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!**

**But digital tears within the next three months. T.T (Go away Ulquiorra you're not welcome here)**

**Alright then! Enjoy the conclusion to Impa Vs. Vegeta: by the way, I hope you guys liked that fight! I put a lot of hard work into it. Also, screwing around a little with Team Link. and Lanayru. The Light Spirit. Things will go down.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**DISCLAIMER: I, JTS, do not own Dragon Ball Z or the Legend of Zelda. However, I did come up with a few OC's and spells myself, which I'll point out at the end of each chapter so there's no confusion.**

**WARNING: Every section following this sentence contains SPOILERSSSSSSS for both series! Read at your own risk!**

* * *

The Search Begins!

...

* * *

_Hyrule Castle_

_Seven hours and thirty minutes after the Aeforce_

_..._

**Vegeta** watched the so-called 'Sheikah' warrior as she adopted a fighting stance, a determined expression on her face. Who was this Impa? Well, she was a warrior, for sure—he didn't have to like her to recognize her skill. But she was undoubtedly unlike any warrior he had ever seen. Her techniques were very strange and unique, using her inverted Ki-like energy in ways that Vegeta had never thought to use them. No doubt about it. Impa was…different.

_She's not _that _different, _a sneaky little voice in the back of his head said. _You recognize that style from way back when you were still a useless midget three-year-old. Don't you?_

He shoved the comments away roughly. Maybe he did see some similarities in the style that she used; so what? He wasn't about to start analyzing her—to do something so thought-out just wasn't like him.

Thinking hard on it, it was almost too bad that Impa would have to die. This had been one of his most invigorating (and yet infuriating) battles he had ever encountered, and in his heart of hearts he absolutely worshipped the sensation of such a challenging battle. But anybody who might have been affiliated with the death of his mother would have to pay the ultimate price, amazing battle or no.

Impa had made a very foolish threat to challenge him, a threat that insulted Vegeta's Saiyan pride. He really didn't like when people insulted his pride. It would hurt a normal Saiyan a little, do insult one's pride; but to Vegeta, insulting his pride was like cutting off his tail (been there done that, all right). And then she had drawn a blade against him in battle. The nerve of some people, to do something so taboo to everything Vegeta believed.

Vegeta pulled off his white gloves, throwing them down to the floor. "You know, since you're at least partially a warrior, I'll let you go out with a bang."

"Ha. That's rich." Again with her grating voice. He didn't have a good response to that.

"Shut up." He channeled his energy and grinned when he felt his own power skyrocket. "Which do you prefer: death by Galick Gun, or by my bare hands?"

"Neither." Impa smiled coyly. "Get through my defenses, blondie, and then I'll decide. And what _is _a Galick Gun? Sounds like a drug. And I'm not a druggie."

"You sure you're not going to surrender and save yourself the horrors of death?"

Impa laughed snidely. "I've already died in a way. I've met you, haven't I?"

"Ha-ha. Hilarious. I'm dying inside, it's so funny." Vegeta's tone froze and became icy cold again. "Well, you want a death wish, you get a death wish!" And with that, he rushed toward Impa, deciding to defeat her the old-fashioned way.

Impa kept her hands up, keeping them in a perfect non-motile form, as Vegeta struck. He threw tight punches and kicks at supersonic speeds, all of which glanced off of an invisible barrier like they were nothing more than projections of light. Every attack lit up the shield with a flash of blue light, only for it to quickly disappear and remain invisible. Finally, he stopped uselessly squandering his energy and backed up until he was against the wall. He then prepared to fire his signature move, pulling his hands back to his side with the palms facing her. As he began to charge, the light from the air was sucked towards him, darkening the entirety of Hyrule Castle. "Galick Gun…" He moved his hands into position as he prepared the blast. "FIRE!"

Vegeta threw his hands forward, unleashing the blast, and a bright lavender stream of pure energy rocketed towards Impa's invisible shield.

At the last second, Impa shouted something in a strange language that Vegeta didn't recognize. The sound sent a ripple through the barrier when the Ki blast collided with it, which reflected the beam back at a very, very startled Saiyan prince. Just in time, Vegeta threw up his arms and crossed them in front of his face, disintegrating the powerful blast on contact. He lowered his charred arms, panting not from exhaustion but shock.

"Tell me," he stammered. "How did you reflect my blast? Only a few people can do that. And none of them are women."

For some reason, Impa was also in disbelief. "You…you broke through…the barrier… Nobody…but Ghirahim…"

Vegeta watched silently as a blue crack appeared in the air in front of Impa. The fissure spread around Impa, darkening the air in it to a fluorescent blue. With an immense cracking sound, the barrier surrounding the Sheikah warrior turned visible and fell apart, falling to the floor and shattering into little particles that sparkled and shimmered before fading into the air.

Vegeta and Impa locked eyes, and an understanding passed between them. They had never seen or faced warriors like each other before. Sure, he really hated her guts; sure, she probably hated his; but she was a warrior, and Vegeta of all people must respect a warrior.

"For a pitiful woman, you fight well, Impa." Vegeta flew down to the ground and casually picked up his gloves, determined to not really show his warrior respect outright. (For details, see fore-mentioned 'Saiyan pride'.)

Impa laughed kind-heartedly, putting her hands on her hips. "I have a feeling that I'll be seeing you soon." She waved her hands, and an inconspicuous door behind her clicked open. "You were looking for something when you came here earlier. Look for whatever it is you need, but just don't trash her room."

"Please, I'm not _that _bad. I like to destroy on a…a grand scale."

The two warriors sank to the ground, hardly making any noise. Impa gestured to the room behind her. "All yours to find whatever it is you're looking for." But just as Vegeta was about to grab the knob, two power levels came flying into sensing range.

"Friends of yours?" Impa looked towards Castle Town, where the two powers were coming in from.

"Don't be foolish, of course not." Vegeta waved his hand dismissively and turned back towards Zelda's room, opening the door, but that response was too quick to be entirely sincere. "Probably just the Nameks crying for their shepherd—"

"Vegeta!"

The Saiyan prince groaned to himself as the two Namekkians came crashing through one of the chapel windows that adorned the sides of the throne room, showering him in pieces of blue, red and yellow glass. Piccolo and Dende floated down to the ground in front of Vegeta.

Impa pouted as she dusted glass off her head. "And there goes the budget money."

"So, Vegeta, I see you found…Impa." Piccolo peered over the Sheikah warrior, obviously intrigued by her personality and difference from every other Hylian.

Vegeta frowned. "Yes, though not intentionally."

Obviously already over the fight, Impa chuckled good-naturedly. "I was waiting for him, and I kicked his butt. Didn't I, Mr. Saiyan Prince?"

"Ha!" Vegeta burst out laughing despite himself, and followed through. "Dream on, Sheikah! You'd have been dead without much more."

Dende looked at Vegeta innocently. "Did you ask her about the Dragonball?"

"Don't be idiotic. Of course not, I came looking for that Zelda girl instead, although I'm about to continue looking. Why? Asking about the Dragonball wasn't my plan."

"I know. It was Gohan's." Dende turned to Piccolo.

Piccolo crossed his arms and yawned lazily (ever the active Namek) before giving Vegeta the short version. "Gohan figured you would run into Impa. He told us to meet up with you and find Zelda. Krillin and Yamcha went with the radar to search, Tien and Chiaotzu are looking for Sheik, and your son and Gohan flew off to find Link and his friends. We're hoping to get help from them to help us find the Dragonball."

Impa walked up to Piccolo and Dende, astounded by their strange looks. "Two questions. One: Are you a Zora?"

"NO!"

"Okay, then, what are you? And that's still the first question."

"You could say I'm a pointy-eared Martian. Or you could be smart and say I'm a Namekkian, from a faraway planet called Namek." Piccolo was becoming increasingly frustrated with these Hylian humans and their inability to recognize the extraordinary.

Surprisingly though, Impa didn't run off or make some sort of ancient evil-off-warding hex. She accepted what he said with a small shrug. "Works with me. In two hours, I've now learned about two new races: Saiyans and Namekkians. I'm not surprised. After all, I've seen the Imprisoned in its final form. Not much surprises me anymore."

"What's the Imprisoned?" Dende shuddered violently. "It sounds scary!"

"It is. Second question. What is this Dragonball you're talking about? Because if it's what I think it is, you guys are disgusting perverts."

Surprisingly, when the comment came from her Piccolo almost grinned. "It's not. It's from our part of this planet. We have seven Dragonballs, mastered by Dende over there, our Guardian." Dende waved a shy green hand. "They're holy orange orbs that can summon a great dragon. When all seven are gathered, Shenron, the Eternal Dragon, is summoned to grant two wishes. After the wishes are made, they spread around the world for another year, until we can summon Shenron again. Except for some reason, when they spread out they didn't lose their power and one of them came here. We need to bring this one back or we can't restore the damage done by Cell."

Impa mulled over this. "Well, then, if they had just spread out, that means you just made some wishes. So why didn't you just wish for the damage to be restored in the first place?"

"I'll tell you why, woman." Vegeta was back to his grumpy self. "We procrastinated. Well, _they_ procrastinated. I was getting ready to fight Majin Buu, and Gohan dragged me out there."

"What?" Dende spun around, looking frantic. "Another villain? Who's Majin Buu?"

Vegeta jumped, then spun around, visibly annoyed that he had revealed some secret. "Unless anyone here wants a Final Shine through the stomach, you didn't hear that from me. Like I was _saying,_" Vegeta growled as he tried to change the topic, "They all wasted my precious training time." Vegeta gave Dende a meaningful glare.

"Why are you looking at me, Vegeta?" Dende was wildly waving his hands now. "All I wanted was to see what a Namekkian woman would look like! It's not my fault that we had to use another wish to get rid of her!"

"Behold." Vegeta exclaimed and pointed to Dende, getting Impa's attention. "The youngest pervert ever!"

"You wanted to see her too!"

"I did not!" The prince's face turned red with fury.

Dende was fuming with anger. "You want to play that way, fine! Next time you need medical help, you can ask somebody for a Senzu bean. I won't heal you, no matter what!"

"Fine, because I don't plan to need healing. But I needed it after the she-Namek." Vegeta pointed to a nasty scar on his arm, one that Impa was sure she had not inflicted. "That wasn't Cell. That was _her, _with her mangy little she-claws_._"

Piccolo had been ignoring the rivalry, and now he fixed his attention on Impa. "Normally, the Dragonballs tend to hide in difficult places to reach, always finding their way into the worst of predicaments. Like a sand pit, or in a bird's nest at the top of a mountain. Anything that makes you say 'well, f**k' when you realize. Any idea where that might be?"

Impa thought for a full minute before gasping triumphantly. "I've got it! Be right back!" Impa disappeared for another minute, then reappeared holding a beaten scroll.

"Lake Floria," she said as she unfurled the parchment. It was a map, with four sections. Each section was drawn not with actual feature but with objects of relative size. On the map, Piccolo could see a volcanic area to the north, a desert area to the west, a forest area in the southeast, and a small, floating island in the center.

"Lake Floria," Impa repeated as she pointed to a clear blue lake in the far southeast. "This is a map of the Surface, as it was known before it became Hyrule. It's slightly outdated and not very precise, but it works well enough. Going southeast of Hyrule Castle, Hyrule's directional center, will get you to the lake. There's a huge dive off in the South Faron Woods. From there, a few currents and some underwater passages will take you to the Ancient Cistern. In a large chamber, just before you reach the Cistern, you'll see Faron. She's the Water Dragon. Faron can tell you if she's seen anything flying into the Cistern. If she has, you can check. If not, you can go to Zora's Domain, where Zelda went."

When Impa realized that Piccolo, Dende and Vegeta had never heard the words 'Zora's Domain' before, never mind they were confused as heck, she sighed. "Be right back, guys." Impa disappeared, tossing the scroll into the air. A few seconds later, she reappeared with another scroll that Piccolo assumed was also a map. His hunch was proven correct when she untied the red ribbon that held it bound and unfurled a much more recent map. Instead of detailed drawings, dark blue ink was used to evidently outline large shapes and long, winding paths. A label was assigned to each area in neat cursive.

Something interesting about the map was the fact that it had sections hastily added to it. In the far west, an area roughly shaped like the volcano region on the previous map was sketched next to and joined to another western area. Both together made up an expanse labeled [Eldin Province]. In the southeast, the forest zone from mentioned previous map was added to another area known as [Faron Province]. Wedged between the area called [Snowpeak] and the region labeled [Gerudo Desert] was another, far bigger desert plainly labeled [Lanayru Desert]. Together, the desert and the area surrounding Hyrule Castle were labeled [Lanayru Province]. In the far south, under the area marked [Ordon Village], was a vast, circular expanse simply stamped [Termina]. Here and there, smaller names like [Kakariko Village] and [The Cave of Ordeals] were connected to dots and lines symbolizing their respective area.

"And this," Impa said, "is the current map of Hyrule and Termina, with the vague areas of the original Surface connected to the real borders and sections. Zora's Domain is the highest point in Hyrule." Impa pointed to the uppermost area of the map, then shifted her finger down to the bottom area. "Termina, well, I couldn't really care less about the wasteland."

"What is it that makes every Hylian hate this Termina province?"

Impa was fuming, definitely annoyed at the mere mention of the place. "Stupid…Great Fairy…idiot Stray Fairies…Fairy Mask…"

Piccolo cringed, not really used to women and their rages. "Uh, Impa? Can we get back to the explaining of the HYLIAN and absolutely not TERMINAN map of this world?" He tapped her lightly on the shoulder and sighed immensely when she calmed down. Grouchily, she rolled up the more current scroll and tied it deftly before tossing it to Piccolo. He caught it swiftly in one hand, but Vegeta swiped it and unfurled it.

"Ah, at last, some directions!" Vegeta curled up the map and handed it back to Piccolo. "That's all women are ever good for." However, the dirty look from both Impa and Dende (go figure) caused him to hastily add, "But in your case, Sheikah, I'll make an exception. I'm not going to mess with a warrior who can deflect my Galick Gun."

"You'd better not." Impa tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. "Well, like I said, Zelda left to Zora's Domain a little bit ago. She left in the form of Sheik, which means she went by foot, probably going through the Eastern Hyrule Field, then through to the north."

"I know how to read a map, woman." Vegeta crossed his arms and laughed snidely. "Don't act all perfect."

Piccolo smiled slightly as he tossed him the map. "Lead on, shepherd boy. Let's just get to this Ancient Cistern place and then head towards Zora's Domain."

Just as everyone lifted off of the ground and began to fly towards the doors, Impa yelled, "Wait! There are plenty of people all over Hyrule and…Termina." She cringed as she said the word, but moved on quickly. "It's a good idea not to fly, so as not to attract attention to yourselves. After all, you are from the world outside this one. Besides," she said, "it's kinda hard to fly underwater, which is how you get to Faron and the Cistern." Her news registered in the trio, who slowly sunk to the ground. She waved a hand as they walked to the doors. "See ya."

Vegeta smiled sneakily over his shoulder. "Yeah, just admit you're gonna miss me. I promise I won't tell."

Impa smiled as Vegeta and the others ran through the doors, leaving her in solitude once again.

_..._

* * *

_Telma's Bar, Hyrule Castle Town_

_Two hours after the Aeforce_

_..._

**Sheik** jogged along the town roads to Telma's bar, slipping between vendors' stalls and down the stairs before quietly turning the doorknob and walking in.

"Telma? It's me, Sheik!" Sheik looked around the room, finally spotting the saucy bartender behind the counter, washing dishes. Telma looked up as Sheik called her name. "Just wanted to grab something to eat before I head up to Zora's Domain."

"Oh, Sheik? That you, lad? Some people were looking for you last night, thought you should know. Needed help finding this… Dragonball thing." Telma set a plate of toast in front of Sheik, who began to eat rapidly. "There were these two green people who looked kind of like Zoras, a guy with three eyes, another guy with a nasty scar over his eye, a tiny Pokémon with a chibi face, a young boy who kissed Agitha, and a really stubborn man with spiky hair and the attitude of Midna and Ghirahim combined. He went to Hyrule Castle, looking for Zelda."

Sheik jumped, almost choking on his toast. The part of him that was Zelda remembered that a strange guy with spiky hair had been in the castle yesterday. "Uh, Telma, two questions. One: What's the stubborn one's name?"

Telma went back to putting away the forks and knifes. "His name was Vegeta, I think. Said something about being the 'Prince of All Saiyans', whatever a 'Saiyan' is."

_Great_, Sheik thought. _Now I know his name. And what the heck _is_ a 'Saiyan'? _"Number two. Where did the ones looking for me go? Because I'm in sort of a rush, but maybe I can help them."

The bartender thought for a moment, wringing her towel and soaking her apron. "The three-eyed guy and the Pokémon went towards what looks like the Sky Cannon. You know your way around Lake Hylia well enough, so you should know how to get up to City in the Sky."

"Uh, not to be an idiot, but what's a Pokémon?"

"Beats me, it just seemed like the right word to describe him." Telma looked down and glowered at her drenched apron. "Oh, great, like I need more of a mess to clean. Might as well expect a wolf to come crawling along the clotheslines before somebody helps me!" She undid the apron and threw it at Sheik, who could barely catch it. "Do me a favor and either throw that away or burn it."

Sheik smiled playfully. "With pleasure. I'm gonna head on over to the Sky Cannon and try and help these guys with what they need." The warrior stood up, stretching with a yawn. Then he made a three-pointer into the wastebasket before running out the door. "Later, Telma!"

Sheik laughed playfully as he ran through the town and into Hyrule Field. The sun was already beginning to sink out of the sky, turning the sky a deep orange faded around the edges to black. By the time it was completely dark out, he was at the Sky Cannon, a massive silver cannon in Lake Hylia with a Clawshot target inside. The two strange people he had been sent to find were standing under the cannon, no doubt looking for a way to use it.

"You have to get inside the cannon to get up to City in the Sky." Sheik watched as the tall one and the tiny one jumped and spun to face him. He quietly walked forward until he was just in front of them. "Hi. I'm Sheik, and I was under the impression that you were looking for me."

The tall one blinked. "Yeah, we were. But how did you… Telma told you, didn't she?" To answer, Sheik gave a curt nod.

The small one groaned. "I knew it! She's such a blabbermouth. I told you that she would tell somebody, Tien!"

The one called Tien rolled all three of his eyes. "I know, Chiaotzu, but you know everything. You're psychic. Remember?"

Sheik looked down in awe at the Chiaotzu creature. "So you're a Pokémon."

"What? What's a Pokémon?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. Telma made it up."

Tien rubbed his upper eye. "So you're Sheik. We need your help to find this thing called a Dragonball. It's about three inches across, it's orange with a number of stars on it, and it's normally found in difficult-to-reach places. Got any ideas?"

The Sheikah did. "Use the Sky Cannon. It can take us to the City in the Sky, where a lot of monsters and space junk ends up. But I'm guessing you guys can fly like that Vegeta person, so you can just follow me once I get in the air."

"Wait a sec." Tien frowned slightly. "You know Vegeta?"

"I wish I didn't," Sheik mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Now let's go. It's getting late, so we're going to have to spend the night in the Oocca town. Too bad. I'll be late for my appointment." Without another word, Sheik leaped into the cannon. The machine began to rumble violently as Tien and Chiaotzu leapt into the air. A thunderous boom shook the sky, shooting Sheik out of the cannon like a spinning super-bullet. At such an unbelievable speed, Tien and Chiaotzu could do nothing but follow in pursuit.

_..._

* * *

_Atop Zora's Domain_

_Two hours after the Aeforce_

_..._

**"What** could have delayed Zelda so long?"

Fi floated up above the huge waterfall that cascaded down from Zora's Domain, almost in an anxious way. "I calculate a 95% probability that she should have made it by now. It is getting dark." The spirit of the Master Sword spun around to face Midna and Link, who were saying goodbye to Prince Ralis.

"Later, your Highness! It was great to see you! " Link waved a hand to the young Zora as he and Midna ran over to Fi. "Ah, that was fun." Link stretched and yawned ferociously as Prince Ralis swam back to his throne, out of earshot.

"Master Link, if I had ears, I would not have them anymore. You need to yawn more quietly." Fi groaned inwardly as Link yawned again to prove his point.

"Wow." Midna had clambered on top of a rock overlooking the rest of the Zora River. "Holy Hylia, that sunset looks beautiful." The sun had just begun to dwindle over the cliffs surrounding the lake, casting an orange glow over the water. The sky was still blue, but the edges were turning as orange as the sun itself.

"Careful, Midna." Link looked around warily. "This area is known for its huge number of Poes—" The sentence was cut off as a glowing blue lantern swatted Link over the edge of the waterfall. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHH!" At the last second, Link managed to turn his clumsy fall into a graceful dive, shooting up a plume of water that somehow drenched the intangible Fi.

Midna laughed convulsively. "Oh, look," Midna choked out between peals of laughter. "The Hero of Time, swatted over the edge of a waterfall by a Poe!" She wiped her eyes, panting from amusement. "This is better than when King Bublin decided to make new horns out of clay. He looked like a mutant unicorn, and this is still funnier!"

"I can _hear_ you, Midna." Link's agonized voice came echoing up the waterfall. "Be right up." With that, Link jumped out of the water and into the waterfall, where he began swimming up against the current with the help of his Zora Tunic. After an excruciating ten seconds, he came up at the top, shaking off the water. "I hate getting wet."

Fi held out her semblance of a palm in the direction of the Poe's lantern, making the ghoul visible. The white ghost's scythe glittered sharply as the creature began floating forwards, edging Link back towards the waterfall. "Master Link, I am unable to keep it in the visible plane for long. You must destroy it now." Already the Poe was losing its solidity, becoming invisible again.

Link nodded and grabbed the Master Sword's handle, pulling the glowing blade out of the sheath. With a yell, he jumped up in the air and brought his sword down on the lantern with incredible force. A hissing sound emanated from it, letting out a cloud of steam. The Poe shrieked, falling to the ground and dissolving into a Poe Soul. Midna floated forward and grabbed the glowing purple orb.

"Well, I think we're done here." Midna closed her palm, making the orb disappear. "I hope Jovani's impressed by our work."

The trio was interrupted by a muffled boom coming from Lake Hylia. "I detect that noise coming from the Sky Cannon." Fi's mechanical voice carried through the air. "I also detect two people are…flying after whoever used the cannon. There is a 120% chance that they are heading for City in the Sky—"

"Fi, how do you get a percent over 100?" Midna flew around in circles, jumping in and out of the water. "I just don't get how they could be going somewhere else. You don't need to add the fact that it's more than definite."

"Midna, sometimes your stupidity embarrasses me. I do not want to look bad."

"Gasp! Where would you look bad? You have a social life?" Midna put her hands on her cheeks and grinned, showing off her fangs.

"Do you speak from experience? Because I do not think that you have one either." Fi's tone remained entirely neutral, but the Master Sword began to glow more brightly in its sheath.

"I'm the Twilight Princess, of course I have a social life!"

"I hardly consider Zant a 'social life'."

"Go to Hell!"

"Unfortunately, I am already there. After all, I have to cart Ghirahim, Ganon, and Demise with me wherever I go." A rare smirk found its way onto Fi's face. "And what are _you_ contributing at this fine moment?"

"GAAAAAAH!" Midna whirled around to face Link. "A little help here, Mr. Hero of Time?"

Unsurprisingly, Link didn't move an inch. "I was just slapped by a Poe down a waterfall, and you laughed more than when I had to go to Kotake to get that stupid Red Potion for Koume again and accidently drank it due to the annoying-ass controls. Why should I help you?"

Fi was no longer interested in the rivalry. "Master Link, maybe we should go analyze the situation at the Sky Cannon. I have narrowed down the possible travelers who might go to the City in the Sky."

"Good to know." Link's hand went immediately to his Adventure Pouch, where he pulled out the Hawkeye. He put it on and looked in the direction of the cannon. "You're right, Fi. I can see steam coming from it. That noise was definitely the cannon firing. Who do you think could have used it?"

"By my calculations, either Sheik, Zelda, or Impa." Fi closed her eyes for a second and Link removed the Hawkeye. "Whoever it was, they are there already."

Midna laughed feebly. "Well, I'm not going in that cannon. No way! I'd much rather dive in Eldin Volcano during a Silent Realm trial. Death by Guardian is less horrible than being that high up!"

Fi cocked her head slightly, confused for once. "Are you…afraid of heights?"

Midna's cheeks turned a surprising shade of pink. "Am not!"

"So that is why you did not want to ride on the Crimson Loftwing. That is why you hate Skyloft and City in the Sky." Fi began to chuckle quietly. "You are 100% afraid of heights."

Midna growled as Fi's chuckle increased caliber to a robotic laugh. "All right, fine! You figured it out. So, if you want Link to go up there, he'll have to go without me!"

"Uh, Fi, maybe we shouldn't go without her. Actually, we shouldn't go at all. And maybe you could stop teasing her?" Now Link was practically begging Fi, for he knew what Midna would do if he allowed himself to go without her, and it wasn't pretty.

Fi continued laughing, practically gasping for breath, even though she didn't need to breathe at all. "I cannot! It is out of my control! These are the moments that make me wish I was human!"

"I'm so happy that my suffering pleases you, little miss Fairy Queen," Midna growled.

Instantly, Fi halted her monotonous laughter. "What…did you just call me?" The blue jewel on Fi's chest began to glow with a blinding blue light, reflecting her anger. "I LOOK NOTHING LIKE THAT IDIOT!"

"You, uh…you've got those emotions down to a science," Link stammered.

Link jumped and started to slink away, but Midna grabbed his trademark green tunic and stopped him in his tracks. "Oh, no you don't. You're going to be my witness. Today, I celebrate success. I have finally found the taunt that makes sweet little Fi crack!"

"I am going to crack you in half, Twilight Traitor!" Now Fi smirked as Midna began to glow red with fury.

"That's nothing. I'll slap you so hard, your ancestors are going to run screaming out of their graves!" Midna waved her hands and began to glow red.

"I do not have ancestors. I am an intangible spirit of a sword."

"Yeah, well, too—"

**"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON UP THERE?!"** A deep, older-than-the-ages type voice rumbled up from a small cave down at the surface of Lake Hylia.

"Uh-oh." Link turned towards the fighting female deities. The aura surrounding Midna flickered and died. Real horror registered on Fi's face as her gemstone ceased its fireworks display. "You know who that is…"

All three of their voices were different, but their voices echoed with the same fear. "Lanayru!"

...

* * *

**Yeah, not much to say afterwards. I've been putting more effort into PKWW by a long shot. No OC's here: but they are coming.**

**Next time, a plan to deal with the new Prison villains is formulated by Team Link and the Light Dragon...Thing. Yeahhhhhhh... Oh, and a lot of interaction with kindred Hylians that's bound to be interesting.**

**I'm taking a break from this one to start up something else I've been working on lately, so expect another chapter in mid-April. Ciao for now!**


End file.
